TU Life of 



Henry/ v V. ( §tanley 




py 



^HENF^Y FREDERJC R.EDDALL 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



dljsp, ©ajajrig^ If o. 

Shelf A$M 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 





HENRY M. STANLEY 



HENRY M. STANLEY 



A RECORD OF 

His Early Lite and Struggles ; His Career in the Confederate 
Army, in the United States Navy, and as a War Corre- 
spondent in Abyssinia; How He Found Livingstone, 
Traced the Course of the Congo, and Founded 
the Congo Free State 

WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF 

HIS LATEST AND GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT, 

THE 

RESCUE OF EMIN BEY. 

COMPILED FROM STANLEY'S NARRATIVES K$D OTHER AUTHENTIC 
o RECORDS 

BY HENRY FREDERIC REDDAL 



W\i 9 1890 

^SHINQTO^ - 



NEW YORK : 
ROBERT BONNER'S SONS, 

PUBLISHERS, 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the yonr 1800, 

By ROBERT BONNER'S SONS, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

[All Rights Reserved.] 



Press op 
The New York Ledger. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Boyhood and Early Manhood 9 

CHAPTER II. 
The Livingstone Quest '. 42 

CHAPTER III. 
Through the Dark Continent and Down the Congo. 136 

CHAPTER IV. 
Founding of the Congo Free State 224 

CHAPTER V. 
Emin Pasha and the Equatorial Provinces 298 

CHAPTER VI. 
Stanley to the Rescue 327 

CHAPTER VII. 
The March to the Sea 375 



HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER I. 

BOYHOOD AND EAKLY MANHOOD. 

The true story of the life of Henry Morton 
Stanley reads like a romance, and is another 
example of that truth which is more interesting 
than fiction. The man known the world over as 
Stanley was born in 18i0, at Denbigh , Wales. His 
real name is John Rowland. His parents were 
so poor that when the boy was three years old he 
was taken in charge by the parish of St. Asaph, 
and was reared in an almshouse. He remained 
in the almshouse until he had received as good an 

PI 



10 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

education as that institution could give, which 
having awakened a desire to know still more, he 
accepted a situation as a school-teacher at Mold, 
in Flintshire, hoping that circumstances would 
so shape themselves that, at a later period, he 
might be able to finish his education. He 
remained at Mold one year, at the end of which 
time he felt that he was not called to be a school- 
teacher. Having received the amount due him, 
and succeeding in obtaining a situation as cabin- 
boy on board a ship bound for New Orleans, he 
embarked for the New World, in which he hoped 
to earn a better living than that which he could 
obtain at home, and at the same time gratify the 
strong instincts of his nature. Soon after his 
arrival he was fortunate in obtaining the friend- 
ship of a gentleman named Stanley, who, having 
been drawn toward the frank Welsh boy, gave 
him employment. As days resolved themselves 
into weeks and months, and his employer and 
friend found that his confidence had not been 
misplaced, he adopted young Eowland, and 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. H 

bestowed upon him his own name. With plenty 
of means to be had for the asking, the youth 
tramped around the Southwest, and spent consid- 
erable time among the Indians. Doubtless he 
gained some ideas about savages there which 
were of great use to him in after years. His 
foster-father died without making a will, and this 
left the young man poor again. 

Says one of his many biographers, Professor 
Packard : " While thus engaged in schooling 
himself, though unconsciously, to his great 
work, the civil war broke out in the United 
States. Here a new field presented itself to him. 
The South had for a long time been his home, 
and he had been educated among circumstances 
which would naturally lead him to accept the 
views of the South. To a certain extent he did 
believe them ; and as the life of a soldier was in 
keeping with his nature, he enlisted in the Con- 
federate army. The roaming life of the army he 
loved ; and instead of shrinking from danger 
when it presented itself, he rather courted it, and 



12 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the story of his connection with the ' Lost Cause ' 
was one of courage and daring. In addition to 
these, he possessed those qualities which lead to 
success and fame. In carrying out one of his 
bold projects, he was taken prisoner by the Union 
troops, and the South lost him forever. His 
prison was the iron-clad Ticonderoga. His 
manliness and courage won the admiration of 
the commander of the vessel, who after a time 
released him upon the condition that he should 
join the American navy. A sailor's life was not 
exactly suited to his nature, and consequently he 
was not adapted to it ; yet, nevertheless, his con- 
duct was such that he was soon raised to the 
position of acting ensign. 

" When at last the war was over, and peace 
came again to our beloved land, he was discharged 
from service, and as his nature demanded some- 
thing to do, he began to look about for some 
congenial field of labor. At this time the Cretans 
were struggling for independence, determined to 
throw off the yoke of Turkish oppression, and be 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 13 

free from its tyrannical rule. Having by chance 
learned the fact, Stanley resolved to join the 
Cretans, and assist them in their efforts to 
become a nation. 

"Securing a situation as correspondent of 
The New York Herald, in company with two 
Americans, he sailed for the island of Crete. 
Having reached his destination, he first sought to 
learn 'the lay of the land,' and, in so doing, 
became so disgusted with the leaders of the 
rebellion, their mode of conducting it, and 
their treatment of prisoners, that he abandoned 
his original intention, and resolved to travel in 
the East. The commission which he had received 
from Mr. Bennett, the proprietor of the Herald, 
allowed him to roam wherever his inclinations 
led him. Under this broad license he had a wide 
field of adventure and travel before him. 

"At this time, Stanley had passed through 
more, and witnessed more, than most men do in 
a lifetime ; and yet he had seen but little more 
than twenty-five years. In 1867 he returned to 



14 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the United States, where he was warmly received 
by Mr. Bennett. Soon after this the English 
government sent out an expedition against the 
king of Abyssinia, who had committed grievous 
wrongs upon the subjects and representatives 
of Her Majesty. Here again Stanley saw a field 
of usefulness, the nature of which was congenial 
to his tastes. He therefore joined the expedition, 
retaining his situation as correspondent of the 
Herald. His letters, as published in the Herald, 
present a succinct account of the campaign, its 
battles, and the final victory. One of the peculiar 
traits of Stanley's character is his ability to over- 
come seeming impossibilities ; and where many 
men would have paused, he has pushed onward. 

"When the final battle had been fought, and 
the British troops had succeeded in winning the 
victory — when peace w r as at last restored, and the 
forces of Britain were triumphant — he at once 
sent the glad news to one of the dailies of Lon- 
don, where it w r as received and published before 
the arrival of the official dispatches. Stanley's 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 15 

letters are considered the best history of the cam- 
paign which has as yet been written. 

" After the absence of one year, Stanley 
returned to the United States in 1868. Mr. Ben- 
nett was one of those men wiio recognize talent 
wherever they see it. When, therefore, he saw 
the ability and the peculiar characteristic of 
Stanley, he felt sure that he had found just the 
man that he had been seeking for a long time ; 
and the letters which Stanley sent from time to 
time to the Herald, confirmed this opinion. 
Having need of a correspondent in Spain, w T hich 
was at this time convulsed with a civil war, he at 
once sent Stanley to that country. In his new 
situation he displayed that same promptness, 
energy, and faithfulness which had previously 
marked his career. Being constantly • upon the 
field, his letters always contained the latest 
news ; and the papers containing them were 
eagerly sought after, since they presented a cor- 
rect aspect of the situation of Spanish affairs." 

His successful performance of all that had been 



16 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

entrusted to him thus far disclosed his fitness 
for the greater work to which he was soon to be 
appointed. 

David Livingstone, a Scotch missionary and 
explorer, had been engaged for thirty years in 
opening Central Africa to the light. His success 
had placed his name among the most famous in 
the record of the present century. But in 1870 
he had been for two years buried in the heart of 
the African continent, and the world had come 
to think that he was dead. In that year the 
enterprise of the editor of The New York Herald 
suggested a search expedition. Young Stanley 
— then thirty years of age — was placed in com- 
mand, and after nine months of vigorous and 
perilous research came upon the brave explorer 
on the shores of Lake Tanganika. 

" Henry M. Stanley, 5 ' says a recent writer, 
" could say in all modesty the other day that he 
believed the mantle of Livingstone had fallen 
upon his shoulders. These two names will be 
forever linked in the story of the awakening of 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 17 

Africa from her sleep of ages. It can be said in 
general of Stanley's books that though his earliest 
ventures in the literature of exploration are full 
of graphic power, his writings have shown a 
steady and rapid advance in felicity of description 
and in fulness and accuracy of statement. In 
the intervals between his journeys in Africa, 
Stanley put forth every effort to acquire the 
scientific equipment which would impart to his 
labors in the field an enduring value. The result 
is that he became one of the most competent geo- 
graphers as well as the greatest explorer of the 
age. It was a remarkable feat he achieved when, 
chased by thousands of enemies down the Congo, 
he mapped the course of the great river for 1500 
miles so accurately, that his delineation of its 
channel in Tlirougli the Dark Continent is to 
all intents and purposes, the map of the Congo 
to-day. The longitudes he was able to take were 
not quite accurate, but his map, considering the 
circumstances under which it was made, has been 
more and more the wonder of geographers as our 



18 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

i 

knowledge of the Congo has grown ; and what a 
prince of explorers that famous work shows 
Stanley to be ! Through the Dark Continent is the 
Odyssey of African travel. No intelligent person 
can afford to say that he has not read it, for it is 
the book that first revealed to the world a vast 
continent from sea to sea, with the greatest of its 
lovely lakes ; with its myriads of princes, power- 
ful and puny ; with its jumble of tongues and 
races ; its vast variety of habitations and modes 
of living ; its greatest river now tumbling to 
lower levels over cataracts, now crowded with 
verdant islands, sea-like in breadth, and navigable 
for over a thousand miles at a stretch. Living- 
stone prepared the way, but Stanley opened the 
door through which the world saw T millions of 
people in the Congo Valley of whom it had never 
heard." 

The records of his first journey to the heart 
of Africa are contained in the book entitled, How 
I Found Livingstone, and this episode in his 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 19 

career appropriately forms the second chapter of 
this biography. 

One cannot read the actions of the heroes, 
Henry M. Stanley and Charles Gordon, without 
feeling that they belong to a type of men which 
is sometimes mourned as extinct. They are not 
unlike the noblest -of the early navigators and 
explorers, who confronted peril, not for glory, 
nor entirely because they were born with the 
thirst for heroic enterprise, but largely to extend 
the domain of faith and pure worship. The 
religious idea has been modified in the last three 
or four centuries, but some of the characteristics 
are the same. It still embraces belief in an 
Invisible Power, which works unceasingly in the 
world it created. 

The development of Henry M. Stanley from an 
adventurer into a hero, remains the grand feature 
of his last and greatest journey. The explorer 
was compelled to meet entirely new obstacles, 
and defeated them all. It must be remembered, 
of course, that he is his own historiographer ; but 



20 HEKRY M. STANLEY. 

there is no reason to suspect his perfect veracity, 
and he obviously places strong restraint upon 
himself to keep down his natural bitterness of 
feeling. 

A very curious letter, says Mr. Theodore Child, 
in which Henry M. Stanley gives his views on 
love and the ladies generally, has fallen into my 
hands. The letter is dated from Jermyn Street, 
London, where Stanley lived before his departure 
for his last trip intojhe heart of the Dark Conti- 
nent, and it is dated August 1, 1884. He says : 

" For the life of me I cannot sit still a moment 
when anything approaching to love comes upon 
the tapis. I have lived with men, not women, 
and it is the man's intense ruggedness, plainness, 
directness, that I have contracted by sheer force 
of circumstances. 

" Poets and women appear to me to be so soft, 
so very unlike (at least, what I have seen,) the 
rude type of mankind, that one soon feels by 
talking to them that he must soften his speech, 
and drawl, or affect a singular articulation, lest 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 21 

offence be taken when none was intended. Hence 
men are seldom sincere to women or poets. Have 
you ever thought of how you looked when speak- 
ing to a woman ? If my recollection serves me 
right, I have seen you talk with such an affected 
softness that I cannot compare the manner of it 
to anything better than that of a strong man 
handling a baby — tenderly, gingerly. So ! But 
my pen is carrying me away. I wish to say, my 
dear friend, that I am absolutely uncomfortable 
when speaking to a woman, unless she is such a 
rare one that she will let me hear some common 
sense. The faci^ is, I can't talk to women. In 
their presence I am just as much of a hypocrite 
as any other man, and it galls me that I must act 
and be affected, and parody myself for no earthly 
reason but because I think, with other men, that 
to speak or act otherwise would not be appreci- 
ated. It is such a false position that I do not 
care to put myself into it." 

Stanley then goes on to qualify his strictures 
by saying that there is one lady, a friend of the 



22 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

poet to whom he writes, to whom he can speak, 
because " after the first few minutes of strange- 
ness have gone she soon lets you know that 
chaff won't do. Therefore," he adds, " please 
say a hearty friend wishes her daily enjoyment 
of her life." 

v As we have seen, before Stanley was known 
as an explorer he served as the Herald cor- 
respondent in two British campaigns, directed, 
one against the Asljantees, and the other against 
King Theodore of Abyssinia. He brilliantly 
improved this opportunity to record two grand 
successes gained by British soldiers in East and 
West Africa, and the volume in which he told 
the story is called Coomassie and Magdala : the 
Story of Two British Campaigns in Africa. 
With stern eloquence and graphic power he des- 
cribes that memorable march when the unsea- 
soned British army waded for one hundred and 
forty miles through deadly swamps, or scrambled 
through the thick jungly forests on their way to 
attack Coomassie. General Fever and General 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 23 

Forest, the Malagasy say, are the commanders 
who defend their capital. It was much the same 
with the chief town of Ashantee, and the strong- 
est fell victims to the malaria that brooded every- 
where. At length the fever-stricken column 
reached Coomassie, and the town was theirs after 
five days' hard frighting. Stanley describes the 
alacrity with which the British, their work accom- 
plished and Coomassie in ashes, fled for their 
lives to the sea. 

The scene and conduct of the other campaign 
affords a stricking contrast— a lofty and salubri- 
ous region of wonderful wildness and grandeur, 
a march into the heart of Abyssinia that bristled 
with interesting incidents, the storming of Mag- 
dala, a town planted on a crag 10,000 feet above 
the sea. The book presents a brilliant picture of 
these two campaigns, and Stanley's humor breaks 
forth upon the smallest provocation — a quality he 
does not display in such abundant measure in 
his later writings. 

In the peaceful conquest of Africa now in 



24 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

progress, says a writer in the Fortnightly Review, 
Great Britain has borne the greater part of the 
burden — her sons were among the first to enter 
the Unknown. Of Scotsmen alone, we may men- 
tion James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveler ; Mun- 
go Park, the discoverer of the Niger ; Colonel 
James Augustus Grant, the discoverer (with 
Speke) of the Victoria Nyanza ; Joseph Thomson 
and Keith Johnston ; and, the greatest of all 
African travelers, Dr. Livingstone, who, between 
1840 and 1873, discovered the great Lakes Nyassa, 
Tanganika, Bangweolo, and the Lualaba (Upper 
Congo). Dr. Eobert Moffat, Livingstone's father- 
in-law, also deserves mention in the same honor- 
able field of missionary enterprise. Dr. Living- 
stone showed us how Africa was to be overcome 
and civilized, and Christian missions have sprung 
up in his track. But Dr. Livingstone's method 
has latterly been discarded in favor of an easier 
and more profitable "Plan of Campaign." We 
iio longer care so much for the spiritual awaken- 
ing of Africa, or, if we have awakened its semi- 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 25 

barbarian inhabitants, it is only to lay upon them 
the curse of Adam— toil ; not toil to evolve the 
higher capacities of the natives, but toil to enrich 
the taskmaster. Their confidence in Europeans 
has first been gained by the work and example of 
our missionaries, who have taught them to trade, 
to till the soil, to gather the fruits of the earth, 
and to live in peace and contentment. Close on 
the heels of the missionary— if we omit the ex- 
plorer, who penetrates everywhere, but rests no- 
where — comes the irresponsible, individual trader. 
To him the native is an instrument for his special 
use ; he is his carrier in a land where no other 
beast of burden can be employed, his laborer 
where no other laborers can be introduced. With 
gin and gunpowder the individual trader buys the 
land, if not the souls, of its native owners. 
Wherever he settles the native degenerates. On 
the West Coast of Africa this degeneration, aris- 
ing out of contact with Europeans, is specially 
observable. The great trading companies, on the 
other hand, rigidly restrict or entirely prohibit the 



26 HEISRY M. STANLEY. 

sale of ardent liquors to the natives, with the most 
beneficial results. It is these trading companies 
which now are bent upon the partition of Africa 
into " spheres of interest/' just as two or more 
doctors may divide off a village or town into dis- 
tricts for their special practice ; their Governments 
do not always go with them, and, unless commit- 
ted to a course of protection, are very unwilling 
to accept responsibility. On the West Coast we 
have the Eoyal Niger Company, which for years 
has been steadily, though quietly, establishing it- 
self on the Niger and Benue ; in 1886 it obtained 
a royal charter, conveying sovereign rights over 
the whole of the Niger from Timbuktu, and of 
the Benue from Yola, extending on both banks 
for thirty miles inland. On the great lakes and in 
the Zambesi zone, we have the African Lakes 
Company ; and only the other day two new com- 
panies were formed ; the British and the German 
East African Associations. It is now proposed to 
form a new (British) Trading Company to tap the 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 27 

riches of the Eastern Soudan, from the Red Sea 
littoral. 

Spain and Portugal, in the beginning of the 
sixteenth century, divided the world between 
them— at least on paper ; the Pope, to whom the 
matter was referreed as arbitrator, drew the 
dividing line on the other side of the world, some- 
where in the longitude of the Philippines. In 
spite of this convenient arrangement, however, 
the United States, Australia, and India belong to 
neither Power ; it clearly was not binding on third 
parties. We have mentioned this case to illus- 
trate a principle that is entirely overlooked by 
those who wish to gain something in the " scram- 
ble " for Africa. The rightful owners of the land, 
being for the most part barbarians, are treated 
unjustly ; they sign away their birthright for a 
mess of pottage ; too often they lay their necks 
under the Juggernaut car of Commercial Pro- 
gress. The " spheres of influence" are delimita- 
ted in too hopeful a spirit ; they in some places 
clash with the interests of third parties. The 



28 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

map of Central and Southern Africa is now neatly 
partitioned off into British, French, German, 
Portuguese, and Congo Independent State spheres 
of influence. It is a paper warfare, and it is 
wonderful what " a scrap of paper " can do. 

Let us briefly consider the position of affairs. 
Africa, as we all know, is a vast plateau contin- 
ent, with an area of over eleven million English 
square miles in extent. Its general elevation 
varies from 1000 to 4000 feet above the sea level ; 
the higher lands and mountains (roughly speak- 
ing) fringe the seaboard, and on the Ked Sea and 
at the Cape they fall in sheer heights close to the 
water's edge. There are ports all round the coast, 
but the only proper access to the interior is by the 
great water-ways. The continent, from the point 
of view of commerce, can therefore best be 
divided into basins or zones : (1) The Niger ; (2) 
the Chad and Shari ; (3) the Zambesi ; (4) the 
Nile ; (5) the Congo ; (6) remaining area. We 
leave altogether out of account the Mediterranean 
coast. 



BOYHOOD A^D EARLY MANHOOD. 29 

Of these, the Niger zone appears to be the 
most important. The Royal Niger Company 
have, it is true, the French and Germans to com- 
pete against ; but they are so firmly established 
that they may now safely be left to their own 
resources : they tap the rich, populous and civil- 
ized States of the Central Soudan, and have 
concluded treaties by which an immense area is 
placed under their sovereignty. The Chad-Shari 
zone may, for these reasons, also be left out of 
account. Were the other commercial companies 
as firmly established as the Eoyal Niger Company, 
there would be no Central African question 
to day ; they could be left to safeguard their own 
interests without calling for Government pro- 
tection. 

In the Zambesi zone a very different state of 
affairs exists. The Portuguese authorities have 
been established on the Sofala and Mozambique 
coasts for centuries. The only access to the great 
lakes is by way of the Zambesi, and the Zambesi 
mouths are in the hands of the Portuguese, who 



30 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

sit at the receipt of custom, and collect all the 
dues they can impose upon merchandise. Their 
prohibitive tariffs, political inaction, destroy trade. 
From Cape Delgado to Delagoa Bay they hold 
undisputed sway. Their colonial policy has been 
to gather where they have not sowed, and instead 
of developing the country and elevating its" 
inhabitants, it has had quite a contrary effect ; 
foreign enterprise and native emancipation have 
been crippled by its exactions and immorality. 
In spite of this, the African Lakes Company, of 
Glasgow, have established a trade-route from the 
mouths of the Zambesi to the head of Lake 
Tanganika. They have a steamer running 
regularly on the Nyassa Lake, and a portage (the 
Stevenson road) from the latter to the former 
lake. If a steamer were placed upon Tanganika, 
one of the best and quickest routes into Central 
Africa would be established. The missionaries 
on the lakes give constant work to the company, 
and its trade could be immensely increased if 
only the country were under a settled and active 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 31 

government. At the present moment this trade- 
route is closed. The Arab slave-raiders have 
swept the shores of Tanganika, blocked the 
Stevenson road, and occupied the country to the 
north of the Nyassa. They have destroyed the 
villages of the Wa-Nkonde, killed or captured 
hundreds of men, women and children, and have 
given out that in future they intend to occupy 
the land, and exact tribute (which is their idea of 
occupation) from all who return there,, even from 
Europeans. 

This, then, w^as the region to be conquered for 
civilization by the indomitable energy of one 
white man. "It is safe to say that no other ex- 
plorer of Africa, America, or any other part of 
the world, has ever accumulated on a single jour- 
ney such wealth of materials, enriching at once so 
many fields of science, and so replete with roman- 
tic, picturesque, and thrilling incidents as fell to 
Stanley's lot on the memorable journey he has 
described in Through the Dark Continent. 

" It was his good fortune to see at its best the 



82 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

powerful kingdom of Uganda, and few parts of 
Africa were more interesting or more worthy of 
Stanley's brilliant pen-pictures than M'Tesa's 
domain on the shores of Lake Victoria before all 
the nftseries of a prolonged civil war had befallen 
its once happy people. How full of strange and 
even tragical adventures were the long boat voy- 
ages around the wooded shores of Lakes Victoria 
and Tanganika, and how full of life and variety 
were the scenes and people the explorer met 
among the ten tribes who dwell along Tan- 
ganika's nine hundred miles of coast line ! It is 
in this book that Stanley makes us well 
acquainted with Tippoo Tib, whom he regarded 
as the most remarkable man he had met in 
Africa, and who has since become so rich and 
powerful. Tippoo Tib and two hundred of his 
men helped Stanley start down the unknown 
Congo from Nyangwe, where both Livingstone 
and Cameron were defeated in their purpose to 
descend the mysterious river. Twenty of the 
dusky favorites of the great trader's harem went 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 33 

with him on this journey, his first trip down the 
river, which he was soon after to bring completely 
under his control for a distance of three hundred 
and fifty miles. The Arabs and half-castes from 
Zanzibar had been long deterred by stories of 
cannibals and fierce dwarfs from venturing 
further down the river, and their descent to Stan- 
ley Falls would perhaps have been delayed several 
years if Stanley had not pioneered the way." 

It is extremely interesting after reading some 
of Stanley's powerful descriptions of fights for life 
with Congo cannibals to compare with them the 
native versions of the same occurrences, which 
they are very glad to give to all who wish to hear 
them. Take, for instance, Stanley's account of 
his thirty-first fight on the terrible river, the last 
but one, and the hardest battle of all, when a 
fleet of sixty-three great Bengal a war-canoes 
came out to exterminate the strangers, who num- 
bered only forty-four guns. It was two hours 
before the Snider muskets won the victory, and 
three hearty cheers rang over the flood as the foe 



34 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

retreated to the shore. Here is a part of the 
description of this battle given by Chief Muele to 
Captain Coquilhat awhile ago. 

"We had not the slightest idea that such 
beings as white people existed. One day, when 
the sun stood right above our heads, we saw" a 
fleet of strangely formed canoes quietly passing 
in front of our villages. We were astonished to 
see that the men were covered with white cloths, 
and it seemed very singular, for the richest men 
we knew wore only a little rag of banana fiber, 
and we saw two men as white as our pottery clay, 
who seemed to be chiefs. Our alarm drums 
sounded, and we crowded the canoes, and started 
out for a fight. As we approached them, we saw 
that one man had straight gray hair, and his eyes 
were the color of the water. He stood up, and 
held toward us a red cloth and some brass wire. 
The other white man aimed his weapon at us, 
and the older man talked to him rapidly in a 
language we did not understand. We thought 
their actions boded us no good, and so we opened 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 35 

the battle, and it was the most terrible we ever 
fought. 

'Our spears fell fast among them, and we 
kiUed some, and their bodies lay half over the 
sides of their canoes. But, oh, what fetich gave 
their weapons such wonderful power ? Their 
bullets, made of a gray metal we had never seen 
before, hit women and old men who were follow- 
ing the combat from the shore. The walls of our 
huts were pierced, and goats in the fields dropped 
dead of their wounds. As for us, who were on 
the water, our shields were pierced as though 
they had been bananas. Many of us were killed 
and wounded, and others were drowned, for holes 
were knocked in some canoes, which filled and 
sank. Still we fought desperately, and followed 
the white beings some distance below our vil- 
lages, but they finally escaped us, and raised loud 
cries of triumph as we ended the pursuit." 

An insight into the character and influence of 
Stanley is revealed by an incident which occurred 
during the descent of the Congo. He had had 



36 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

much trouble with his men, on account of their 
inherent propensity to steal, the results of which 
brought upon the expedition much actual dis- 
aster. At last Stanley doomed the next man 
caught stealing to death. His grief and distress 
were unbounded when the next thief, detected in 
a case of peculiar flagrancy, was found to be 
Uledi, the bravest, truest, noblest of his dusky 
followers. Uledi had saved one hundred lives, 
his own among the number. He had performed 
acts of the most brilliant daring, always success- 
ful, always daring, always kind. Must Uledi die ? 
He called all his men around him in a council. 
He explained to them the gravity of Uledi's 
crime. He reminded them of his stern decree, 
but said he was not hard enough to enforce it 
against Uledi. His arm was not strong enough 
to lift the gun that would kill Uledi, and he would 
not bid one of them to do what he could not do 
himself. But some punishment, and a hard one, 
had to be meted out. What should it be ? T^ie 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 37 

council must decide. They took a vote. Uledi 
must be flogged. 

When the decision was reached, Stanley stand- 
ing, Uledi crouching at his feet, and the solemn 
circle drawn closely around them, one man, 
whose life Uledi had saved under circumstances 
of frightful peril, stood forth, and said : " Give 
me half the blows, master." Then another said 
in the faintest accents, while tears fell from his 
eyes : " Will the master give his slave leave to 
speak ?" 

"Yes,' 1 said Stanley. 

The Arab came slowly forward and knelt by 
Uledi's side. His words came slowly, and now 
and then a sob broke them. 

" The master is wise," he said. u He knows all 
that has been, for he writes them in a book. I 
am black, and know not. Nor can I remember 
what is past. What we saw yesterday is to-day 
forgotten. But the master forgets nothing. He 
puts it all in the book. Each day something is 
written. Let your slave fetch the book, master, 



38 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and turn its leaves. May-be you will find some 
words there' about Uledi. May-be there is some- 
thing that tells how he saved Zaidi from the 
white waters of the cataract ; how he saved 
many men— how many, I forget. Bin Ali, Mab- 
ruki, KoniKusi— others, too ; how he is worthier 
than any three of us, how he always listens when 
the master speaks, and then flies forth at his 
word. Look, master, at the book. Then, if the 
blows mnst be struck, Shumari will take half and 
I the other half. The master will do what is 
righto Saywa has spoken." 

And Saywa's speech deserves to live forever. 
Stanley threw away his whip. " Uledi is free," 
he said. " Shumari and Saywa are pardoned." 

" At this moment," says an editorial writer in 
Harper's Weekly, " the most conspicuous man in 
the world is 'Stanley Africanus.' Every news- 
paper in Europe and America simultaneously 
announced his arrival upon the eastern coast of 
Africa. Europe spoke by the German Emperor 
offering him a war ship to carry him from Zanzi- 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 39 

bar, and welcoming him to the triumph of a hero. 
He is honored as the chief of travelers, as a hero 
of romance ; and his comrade, Mr. Joseph Thom- 
son, who thought him hopelessly lost, now 
hastens to celebrate his Homeric exploits and his 
Napoleonic energy. Germany and England pre- 
pare for him an unprecedented reception, in 
which practically every country and the intelli- 
gence of the world will join. The newspaper 
reporter has scaled the heights of distinction, and 
written his name by- those of the greatest of 
explorers. 

"The secret of such renown is not hidden. It 
is the instinctive delight of men in heroism, in 
personal courage, in perilous adventure happily 
surmounted. It is a career which implies an un- 
daunted spirit, immense resource, complete self- 
possession, and prompt seizure and wise improve- 
ment of opportunity. They are the qualities 
which in other spheres of activity found States, 
baffle apparently resistless forces, and change the 
course of history. Stanley has confronted the 



40 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

almost boundless and unknown forests and jun- 
gles, the morasses and waters and mountains of 
a continent swarming with savage hostility, with 
pestilence, and a myriad nameless obstructions, 
in an impenetrable silence and absolute separation 
from the rest of the world and from all hope of 
communication or succor. And upon him alone, 
upon his health, strength, intelligence, spirit, 
nerve, and persistence, not only his own life, but 
the lives of hundreds, the welfare of thousands, 
increased knowledge, and the progress of civiliza- 
tion depended. He has not failed. He has over- 
come. It is not a picnic from which he emerges, 
but he comes a conqueror from a tremendous and 
prolonged conflict with what seemed invincible 
forces. 

" When Dr. Kane returned from his great voy- 
age to the north pole — a small, quiet, refined, and 
modest man — Thackeray, who was then in this 
country, met him one day at dinner, and heard 
his simple and thrilling story. When Kane 
paused, Thackeray arose to his full height, and 



BOYHOOD AND EARLY MANHOOD. 41 

gravely asked to be permitted to kneel and kiss 
his foot. It was a humorous form of the instinc- 
tive homage of the hardy English race to indomit- 
able pluck and persistence. It is the same feeling 
which will bring Germany and England to receive 
Stanley as a conqueror — not from battle-fields or 
bloody decks, but from the long contest with 
savage nature, which, whether at the icy North 
or the burning equator, has always had the pro- 
foundest fascination from the night, three centu- 
ries ago, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert's light 
suddenly vanished upon the ocean, to the happy 
moiTiing, just now, when Stanley was known to 
have arrived at Zanzibar. ' Heaven is as near by 
sea as by land/ said the unconquerable Sir 
Humphrey, and Stanley's letter is in the same 
high strain," 



12 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 



a 



On the sixteenth day of October, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-nine, I am in Madrid, fresh from the car- 
nage at Valencia. At 10 a. m. Jacopo, at No. 

Calle de la Cruz, hands me a telegram : on open- 
ing it I find it reads, ' Come to Paris on impor- 
tant business.' The telegram is from James Gor- 
don Bennett, jun., the young manager of Tlie 
New York Herald. 

" Down come my pictures from the wall of my 
apartments on the second floor ; into my trunks 
go my books and souvenirs, my clothes are 
hastily collected, some half washed, some from 
the clothes-lines half dry, and after a couple of 
hours of hasty hard work my portmanteaus are 
strapped up and labelled ' Paris. 5 




DAYID LIVINGSTONE. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 45 

" The express-train leaves Madrid for Hendaye 
at 3 p. m. I have yet time to say farewell to my 
friends. I have one at No. 6 Calle Goya, fourth 
floor, who happens to be a contributor to several 
London dailies. He has several children, in 
whom I have taken a warm interest. Little 
Charlie and Willie are fast friends of mine ; they 
love to hear of my adventures, and it has been a 
pleasure to me to talk to them. But now I must 
say farewell. 

"Then I have friends at the United States 
Legation whose conversation I admire — there 
has come a sudden ending of it all. ' I hope you 
will write to us, we shall always be glad to hear 
of your welfare.' How often have I not during 
my feverish life as a flying journalist heard the 
very same words, and how often have I not suf- 
fered the same pang at parting from friends just 
as warm as these ! 

"But a journalist in my position must need 
suffer. Like a gladiator in the arena, he must be 
prepared for the combat. Any flinching, any 



46 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

cowardice, and he is lost. The gladiator meets 
the sword that is sharpened for his bosom — the 
flying journalist or roving correspondent meets 
the command that may send him to his doom. 
To the battle or the banquet it is ever the same — 
' Get ready and go.' 

" At 3 p. M. I was on my way, and being 
obliged to stop at Bayonne a few hours, did not 
arrive at Paris until the following night. I went 
straight to the ' Grand Hotel,' and knocked at the 
door of Mr. Bennett's room. 

" ' Come in,' I heard a voice say. 

" Entering, I found Mr. Bennett in bed. 

" ( Who are you ? ' he asked. 

' 4 ' My name is Stanley !■ I answered. 

" ' Ah, yes ! sit down ; I have important busi- 
ness on hand for you.' 

u After throwing over his shoulders his robe- 
de-chambre, Mr. Bennett asked, ' Where do you 
think Livingstone is ?' 

" c I really do not know, sir !' 

u 'Do you think he is alive ?' 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 47 

kfc4 He may be, and he may not be!' I an- 
swered. 

" ' Well, I think he is alive, and that he can be 
found, and I am going to send you to find him.' 

"'What!' said I, 'do you really think I can 
find Dr. Livingstone ? Do you mean me to go to 
Central Africa V 

"'Yes; I mean that you shall go, and find 
him wherever you may hear that he is, and to get 
what news you can of him, and perhaps ' — deliv- 
ering himself thoughtfully and deliberately — 
' the old man may be in want — take enough 
with you to help him should he require it. Of 
course, you will act according to your own plans, 
and do what you think best— BUT FIND 
LIVINGSTONE ! ' 

"Said I, wondering at the cool order of send- 
ing one to Central Africa to search for a man 
whom I, in common with almost all other men, 
believed to be dead, ' Have you considered 
seriously the great expense you are likely to incur 
on account of this little journey V 



48 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

"- What will it cost?' he asked, abruptly. 

"'Burton and Speke's journey to Central 
Africa cost between £3,000 and £5,000, and I fear 
it cannot be done under £2,500.' 

"'Well, I will tell you what you will do. 
Draw a thousand pounds now ; and when you 
have gone through that, draw another thousand, 
and when that is spent, draw another thousand, 
and when you have finished that, draw another 
thousand, and so on ; but FIND LIVINGSTONE.' 

" Surprised but not confused at the order, for I 
knew that Mr. Bennett when once he had made 
up his mind was not easily drawn aside from his 
purpose, I yet thought, seeing it was such a 
gigantic scheme, that he had not quite considered 
in his own mind the pros and cons of the case ; I 
said, 'I have heard that should your father die 
you would sell the Herald and retire from busi- 
ness.' 

" ' Whoever told you that is wrong, for there is 
not money enough in New York city to buy The 
New York Herald. My father has made it a 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 49 

great paper, but I mean to make it greater. I 
mean that it shall be a newspaper in the true 
sense of the word. I mean that it shall publish 
whatever news will be interesting to the world, 
at no matter what cost.' 

" ' After that,' said I, 'I have nothing more to 
say. Do you mean me to go straight on to Africa 
to search for Dr. Livingstone V 

" 'No ; I wish you to go to the inauguration of 
the Suez Canal first and then proceed up the Nile. 
I hear Baker is about starting for Upper Egypt. 
Find out what you can about this expedition, and 
as you go up describe as well as possible what- 
ever is interesting for tourists ; and then write up 
a guide — a practical one — for Lower Egypt, tell us 
about whatever is w^orth seeing and how to see it. 

" ' Then you might as well go to Jerusalem ; I 
hear Captain Warren is making some interesting 
discoveries there, Then visit Constantinople, and 
find out about that trouble between the Khedive 
and the Sultan. 

" ' Then — let me see — you might as well visit 



50 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the Crimea and those old battle-grounds. Then go 
across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea ; I hear 
there is a Russian expedition bound for Khiva. 
From thence you may get through Persia to India ; 
you could write an interesting letter from Persep- 
olis. 

" ' Bagdad will be close on your way to India ; 
suppose you go there, and write up something 
about the Euphrates Valley Railway. Then, when 
you have come to India, you can go after Living- 
stone. Probably you will hear by that time that 
Livingstone is on his way to Zanzibar ; but, if 
not, go into the interior and find him, if alive. 
Get what news of his discoveries you can ; and, 
if you find he is dead, bring all possible proofs of 
his being dead. That is all. Good-night, and 
God be with you.' 

" ' Good-night, sir,' I said ; k what it is in the 
power of human nature to do I will do ; and on 
such an errand as I go upon, God will be with 
me.' 

" I lodged with young Edward King, who is 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 51 

making such a name in New England. He was 
just the man who would have delighted to tell the 
journal he was engaged upon what young Mr. 
Bennett was doing, and what errand I was bound 
upon. 

" I should have liked to exchange opinions with 
him upon the probable results of my journey, 
but I dared not do so. Though oppressed 
with the great task before me, I had to appear as 
if only going to be present at the Suez Canal. 
Young King followed me to the express train 
bound for Marseilles, and at the station we parted 
— he to go and read the newspapers at Bowies' 
Reading room — I to Central Africa and — who 
knows ? 

"There is no need to recapitulate what I did 
before going to Central Africa. 

"I went up the Nile, and saw Mr. Higgin- 
botham, chief-engineer in Baker's expedition, at 
Philae, and was the means of preventing a duel 
between him and a mad young Frenchman, who 
wanted to fight Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, 



52 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

because that gentleman resented the idea of being 
taken for an Egyptian, through wearing a fez cap. 
I had a talk with Captain Warren at Jerusalem, 
and descended one of the pits with a sergeant of 
engineers to see the marks of the Tyrian work- 
men on the foundation stones of the Temple of 
Solomon. I visited the mosques of Stamboul 
with the Minister Resident of the United States 
and the American Consul General. I traveled 
over the Crimean battle-grounds with- Kinglake's 
glorious books for reference in my hand. I dined 
with the widow of General Liprandi at Odessa. 
I saw the Arabian traveler, Palgrave, at Trebi- 
zond, and Baron Nicolay, the Civil Governor of 
the Caucasus, at Tiflis. I lived with the Russian 
Ambassador while at Teheran, and wherever I 
went through Persia I received the most hospit- 
able welcome from the gentlemen of the Indo- 
European Telegraph Company ; and following 
the example of many illustrious men, I wrote 
my name upon one of the Persepolitan monu- 
ments. In the month of August, 1870, I arrived 
in India. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 53 

" On the twelfth of October, I sailed on the 
barque Polly from Bombay to Mauritius. As 
the Polly was a slow sailer, the passage lasted 
thirty- seven days. On board this barque was a 
William Lawrence Farquhar — hailing from Leith, 
Scotland — in the capacity of first mate. He was 
an excellent navigator, and, thinking he might 
be useful to me, I employed him ; his pay to 
begin from the date we should leave Zanzibar for 
Bagamoyo. As there was no opportunity of 
getting to Zanzibar direct, I took ship to Sey- 
chelles. Three or four days after arriving at 
Mahe, one of the Seychelles group, I was fortu- 
nate enough to get a passage for myself, William 
Lawrence Farquhar, and Selim — a Christian Arab 
boy of Jerusalem, who was to act as interpreter — 
on board an American whaling vessel, bound for 
Zanzibar, at which port we arrived on the sixth 
of January, 1871." 

The foregoing is Stanley's memorable intro- 
duction to How 1 Found Livingstone, in which he 
tells, better than any one else could tell it, of the 



54 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

inception and formation of what was regarded at 
the time as the most quixotic enterprise since the 
days of the good knight of La Mancha. 

"Zanzibar," says Professor Drummond, " is the 
focus of all East African exploration. No matter 
where you are going in the interior, you must 
begin at Zanzibar. Oriental in its appearance, 
Mohammedan in its religion, Arabian in its 
morals, this cesspool of wickedness is a fit capital 
for the Dark Continent. But Zanzibar is Zanzi- 
bar simply because it is the only apology for a 
town on the whole coast. An immense outfit is 
required to penetrate this shopless and foodless 
land, and here only can the traveler make up his 
caravan. The ivory and slave trades have made 
caravaning a profession, and everything the 
explorer wants is to be had in these bazars, from 
a tin of sardines to a repeating rifle. Here these 
black villians, the porters, — the necessity and 
the despair of travelers, the scum of old slave 
gangs, and the fugitives from justice from every 
tribe,— congregate for hire. And if there is one 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 55 

thing on which African travelers are for once 
agreed, it is that for laziness, ugliness, stupidness 
and wickedness, these men are not to be matched 
on any continent in the world. Their one strong 
point is that they will engage themselves for the 
Victoria Nyanza or for the Grand Tour of the 
Tanganika with as little ado as Chamounix guides 
volunteer for the Jardin ; but this singular avid- 
ity is mainly due to the fact that each man cher- 
ishes the hope of running away at the earliest 
opportunity. Were it only to avoid requiring to 
employ these gentlemen, having them for one's 
sole company month after month, seeing them 
transgress every commandment in turn before 
your eyes — you yourself being powerless to check 
them except by a wholesale breach of the sixth — 
it would be worth while to seek another route 
into the heart of Africa. 

" But there is a much graver objection to the 
Zanzibar route to the interior. Stanley started 
by this route on his search for Livingstone, two 
w-hite men with him ; he came back without 



56 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

them. Cameron set out by the same path to 
cross Africa with two companions ; before he got 
to Tanganika he was alone. The Geographical 
Society's late expedition, under Mr. Keith John- 
stone, started from Zanzibar with two Europeans ; 
the hardy and accomplished leader fell within a 
couple of months. These expeditions have all 
gone into the interior by this one fatal way, and 
probably every second man, by fever or by acci- 
dent, has left his bones to bleach along the road. 
Hitherto there has been no help for it. The great 
malarious coast-belt must be crossed, and one has 
simply to take his life in his hands and go 
through with it." 

In view of these facts the w r isdom of Stanley's 
choice of the Congo route in his last journey 
would seem to be amply vindicated, even had 
there been no other reason to influence his choice. 

The same mode of commerce obtains here as 
in all Mohammedan countries — nay, the mode 
was in vogue long before Moses was born. The 
Arab never changes. He brought the customs of 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 57 

his forefathers with him when he came to live 
in Zanzibar. He is as much of an Arab here 
as at Muscat or Bagdad ; wherever he goes to 
live, he carries with him his harem, his religion, 
his long robe, his shirt, his watta, and his dagger. 
If he penetrates Africa, not all the ridicule of the 
negroes can make him change his modes of life." 
So the Arab, who dominates the trade of the 
entire region, travels by caravan. 

Naturally Stanley's first inquiry at Zanzibar 
was if any tidings of Dr. Livingstone had been 
lately received. There was one man of all others 
resident there who was by all accounts the most 
likely to be the depositary of any such intelli- 
gence. This was Dr. Kirk, the British consul. 

" I felt quite a curiosity to see this gentleman, 
from the fact of his name being so often coupled 
with the object of my search — Dr. David Living- 
stone. In almost all newspapers he -was men- 
tioned as the ' former companion of Dr. Living- 
stone.' I imagined, from the tone of the articles 
that I saw published, and from his own letters to 



58 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the Indian Government, that if I could obtain 
any positive information from any person regard- 
ing the whereabouts of Dr. Livingstone, I should 
be able to procure it from Dr. Kirk. It was with 
feelings of no small impatience, therefore, that I 
awaited the honor of an introduction to him. 

" On the second morning after my arrival at 
Zanzibar, according to the demands of Zanzibar 
etiquette, the American Consul and myself sallied 
out into the street, and in a few moments I was 
in the presence of this much- famed man. To a 
man of rather slim figure, dressed plainly, slight- 
ly round-shouldered, hair black, face thin, cheeks 
rather sunk and bearded, Captain Webb said, 
* Dr. Kirk, permit me to introduce Mr. Stanley, of 
The New York Herald.' 

"I fancied at the moment that he lifted his 
eyelids perceptibly, disclosing the full circle of the 
eyes. If I were to define such a look, I would 
call it a broad stare. During the conversation, 
which ranged over several subjects, though 
watching his face intently, I never saw it kindle 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 59 

or become animated but once, and that was while 
relating some of his hunting feats to us. As the 
subject nearest my heart was not entered upon, I 
promised myself I would ask him about Dr. Liv- 
ingstone the next time I called upon him, which 
was at a sort of weekly reception. 

" The entertainment which the British consul 
and his lady provided for the visitors on their 
■ evening ' consists of a kind of mild wine and 
cigars ; not because they have nothing else in the 
house — no decoction of bohea, or hyson, with a 
few cakes — but I suppose because it is the normal 
and accustomed habit of a free Zanzibarized 
European to indulge in something of this sort, 
mixed with a little soda or seltzer -water, as a 
stimulant to the bits of refined gossip, generally 
promulgated under the vinous influence to sym- 
pathizing, interested, and eager listeners. 

"It was all very fine, I dare say, but I thought 
it was the dreariest evening I ever passed, until 
Dr. Kirk, pitying the wearisomeness under which 
I was laboring, called me aside to submit to my 



60 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

inspection a magnificent elephant rifle, which he 
said was a present from a governor of Bombay. 
Then I heard eulogies upon its deadly powers and 
its fatal accuracy ; I heard anecdotes of jungle 
life, adventures experienced while hunting, and 
incidents of his travels with Livingstone. 

" 'Ah, yes, Dr. Kirk,' I asked carelessly, ' about 
Livingstone — where is he, do you think, now V 

" ' Well, really,' he replied, 'you know that is 
very difficult to answer ; he may be dead ; there 
is nothing positive whereon we can base sufficient 
reliance. Of one thing I am sure, nobody has 
heard anything definite of him for over two 
years. I should fancy, though, he must be alive. 
We are continually sending something up for 
him. There is a small expedition now at Baga 
moyo to start shortly. I really think the old man 
should come home now ; he is growing old, you 
know, and if he died, the world would lose the 
benefit of his discoveries. He keeps neither notes 
nor journals ; it is very seldom he takes observa- 
tions. He simply makes a note or dot, or some- 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 61 

thing, on a map, which nobody could understand 
but himself. Oh, yes, by all means if he is alive 
he should come home, and let a younger man 
take his place.' 

" ' What kind of a man is he to get along with, 
Doctor V I asked, feeling now quite interested in 
his conversation. 

" ' Well, I think he is a very difficult man to 
deal with generally. Personally, I have never 
had a quarrel with him, but I have seen him in 
hot water with fellows so often, and that is prin- 
cipally the reason, I think, he hates to have any 
one with him.' 

" 'I am told he is a very modest man ; is he V 
I asked. 

" ' Oh, he knows the value of his own discover- 
ies ; no man better. He is not quite an angel,' 
said he, with a laugh. 

" 'Well, now, supposing I met him in my travels 
— I might possibly stumble across him if he 
travels anywhere in the direction I am going — 
how would he conduct himself towards me V 



62 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

"'To tell you the truth, ' said he, 'I do not 
think he would like it very well. I know if 
Burton, or Grant, or Baker, or any of those fel- 
lows were going after him, and he heard of their 
coming, Livingstone would put a hundred miles 
of swamp, in a very short time, between himself 
and them. I do, upon my word, I do.' 

" This was the tenor of the interview I held 
with Dr. Kirk — former companion of Livingstone 
— as well as my journal and memory can recall it 
to me. 

"Need I say this information, from a gentle- 
man known to be well acquainted with Dr. Liv- 
ingstone, rather had the effect of damping my 
ardor for the search, than adding vigor to it. I 
felt very much depressed, and would willingly 
have resigned my commission ; but then, the 
order was, < GO AND FIND LIVINGSTONE.' 
Besides, I did not suppose, though I had so readily 
consented to search for the Doctor, that the path 
to Central Africa was strewn with roses. What 
though I were rebuked as an impertinent inter- 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 63 

loper in the domain of Discovery, as a meddler in 
things that concerned not myself, as one whose 
absence would be far more acceptable to him than 
my presence— had I not been commanded to find 
him ? Well, find him I would, if he were above 
ground ; if not, then I would bring what con- 
cerned people to know, and keep." 

Stanley was totally ignorant of the interior, 
and it was difficult at first to know what he 
needed in order to take an expedition into Cen- 
tral Africa. Time was precious, also, and much 
of it could not be devoted to inquiry and investi- 
gation. In a case like this, he says, it would have 
been a godsend had either of the three gentlemen, 
Captains Burton, Speke, or Grant given some 
information on these points ; had they devoted a 
chapter upon How to Get Ready an Expedition 
for Central Africa. 

" These are some of the questions I asked my- 
self, as I tossed on my bed at night : 
How much money is required V 
How many pagazis, or carriers V 



a t 



Li, i 



64 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

" ' How many soldiers V 

" ' How much cloth?' 

" ' How many beads V 

" ' How much wire V 

u ' What kinds of cloth are required for the dif- 
ferent tribes V 

"Ever so many questions to myself brought 
me no nearer the exact point I wished to arrive 
at. I scribbled over scores of sheets of paper, 
making estimates, drawing out lists of material, 
calculating the cost of keeping one hundred men 
for one year, at so many yards of different kinds 
of cloth, etc. I studied Burton, Speke and Grant 
in vain. A good deal of geographical, ethnologi- 
cal, and other information appertaining to the 
study of Inner Africa was obtainable, but infor- 
mation respecting the organization of an expedi 
tion requisite before proceeding to Africa, was not 
in any book. I threw the books from me in dis- 
gust. The Europeans at Zanzibar knew as little 
as possible about this particular point. There 
was not one white man at Zanzibar w^ho could 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 65 

tell how many dotis a day a force of one hundred 
men required for food on the road. Neither, in- 
deed, was it their business to know. But what 
should I do at all, at all ? This was a grand 
question. 

" I decided it were best to hunt up an Arab 
merchant who had been engaged in the ivory 
trade ; or who was fresh from the interior." 

The reader must bear in mind that a traveler 
requires only that which is sufficient for travel 
and exploration ; that a superfluity of goods or 
means will prove as fatal to him as poverty of 
supplies. It is on this question of quality and 
quantity that the traveler has first to exercise his 
judgment and discretion. 

Stanley's informants gave him to understand 
that for the subsistence of one hundred men for 
two years would require 4000 doti=16,000 yards 
of American sheeting ; 2,000 doti=8,000 yards of 
kaniki ; 1,300 doti=5,200 yards of mixed colored 
cloths. This was definite and valuable informa- 
tion. Second in importance to the amount of 



66 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

cloth required was the quantity and quality of 
the beads necessary. One tribe preferred white 
to black beads, brown to yellow, red to green, 
green to white, and so on. 

" After the beads came the wire question. I 
discovered, after considerable trouble, that Nos. 
5 and 6 — almost of the thickness of telegraph 
wire — w^ere considered the best numbers for trad- 
ing purposes. While beads stand for copper coins 
in Africa, cloth measures for silver ; wire is 
reckoned as gold in the countries beyond the Tan- 
ganika. Three hundred and fifty pounds of 
brass- wire, the Arab adviser thought, would be 
ample." 

Having purchased the cloth, the beads, and the 
wire, it w r as no little pride that Stanley surveyed 
the comely bales and packages lying piled up, row 
above row, in Captain Webb's capacious store 
room. Yet there were provisions, cooking-uten- 
sils, boats, rope, twine, tents, donkeys, saddles, 
bagging, canvas, tar, needles, tools, ammunition, 
guns, equipments, hatchets, medicines, bedding, 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 67 

presents for chiefs— in short, a thousand things 
not yet purchased. 

" The next thing was to enlist, arm and equip 
a faithful escort of twenty men for the road. 
With the aid of the dragoman, Johari, I secured 
in a few hours the services of Uledi, Ulimengo, 
Baruiti, Ambari, Mabruki, five of Speke's ' Faith- 
fuls.' When I asked them if they were willing 
to join another white man's expedition to Ujiji, 
they replied very readily that they were willing to 
join any brother of ' Speke's.' 

"When my purchases were completed, and I 
beheld them piled up, tier after tier, row upon 
row, here a mass of cooking utensils, there 
bundles of rope, tents, saddles, a pile of portman- 
teaus and boxes, containing every imaginable 
thing, I confess I was rather abashed at my own 
temerity. Here were at least six tons of material. 

"The traveler, with a lake in the centre of 
that broad African continent before him, must 
needs make his way there after a fashion very 
different from that to which he has been accus- 



68 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

tomed in other countries. He requires to take 
with him. just what a ship must have when about 
to sail on a long voyage. He must have his slop 
chest, his little store of canned dainties, and his 
medicines, beside which, he must have enough 
guns, powder and ball to be able to make a series 
of good fights if necessary. He must have men 
to convey these miscellaneous articles ; and as a 
man's maximum load does not exceed seventy 
pounds, to convey 11,000 pounds requires nearly 
one hundred and sixty men. 

"•The African traveler can hire neither wagons 
nor camels, neither horses nor mules to proceed 
with him into the interior. His means of convey- 
ance are limited to black and naked men, who 
demand at least $15 a head for every seventy 
pounds weight carried only as far as Unyany- 
embe." 

At length the weary preparations w r ere com- 
pleted, and the expedition left Zanzibar to cross 
to Bagamoyo on the mainland, twenty miles 
away. Here the pagazis, or bearers, were to be 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 69 

engaged, and another dreary time of haggling set 
in. But within a month enough men had been 
hired, and three relays or sections of the expedi- 
tion had been sent forward. Here is Stanley's 
memorandum of the progress made up to this 
time : 

1871. Feb. 6. — Expedition arrived at Bagamoyo. 

1871. Feb. 18. — First caravan departs with 
tw T enty-f our pagazis and three soldiers. 

1871. Feb. 21. — Second caravan departs with 
twenty-eight pagazis, two chiefs, and two soldiers. 

1871. Feb. 25. — Third caravan departs with 
twenty-two pagazis, ten donkeys, one white man, 
one cook, and three soldiers. 

1871. March 11.— Fourth caravan departs with 
fifty five pagazis, two chiefs, and three soldiers. 

1871. March 21. — Fifth caravan departs with 
twenty-eight pagazis, twelve soldiers, two white 
men, one tailor, one cook, one interpreter, one 
gun-bearer, seventeen asses, two horses and one 
dog. 

Total number, inclusive of all souls, comprised 



70 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

in caravans connected with the "New York 
Herald Expedition/' 192. 

■m 

u On the twenty-first of March," says Stanley, 
tl exactly seventy-three days after my arrival at 
Zanzibar, the fifth caravan, led by myself, left the 
town of Bagamoyo for our first journey westward 
with ' Forward !' for its mot du guet. As the 
kirangozi unrolled the American flag, and put 
himself at the head of the caravan, and the 
pagazis, animals, soldiers, and idlers were lined 
for the march, we bade a long farewell to the 
dolcefar niente of civilized life, to the blue ocean 
and to its open road to home, to the hundreds of 
dusky spectators who were there to celebrate our 
departure with repeated salvoes of musketry. 

"Our caravan is composed of twenty-eight 
pagazis, including the kirangozi, or guide ; twelve 
soldiers under Captain Mbarak Bombay, in charge 
of seventeen donkeys and their loads ; Selim, my 
boy interpreter, in charge of the donkey and cart 
with its load ; one cook and sub, who is also to 
be tailor and ready Hand for all, and leads the 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 71 

gray horse ; Shaw, once mate of a ship, now 
transformed into rearguard and overseer for the 
caravan, who is mounted on a good riding-don- 
key, and wearing a canoe-like topee and sea- 
boots ; and lastly, on a splendid bay horse (pre- 
sented to me by Mr. Goodhue, an American gen- 
tleman, long resident at Zanzibar), myself, called 
6 Bana Mkuba,' the 'big master,' by my people — 
the vanguard, the reporter, the thinker, and 
leader of the Expedition." 

" We left Bagamoyo the attraction of all the 
curious, with much eclat, and defiled up a 
narrow lane, shaded almost to twilight by the 
dense umbrage of two parallel hedges of mimosas. 
We were all in the highest spirits. The soldiers 
sang, the kirangozi lifted his voice into a loud 
bellowing note, and fluttered the American flag, 
which told all on-lookers, ' Lo, a Musungu's cara- 
van ;' and my heart, I thought, palpitated much 
too quickly for the sober face of a leader. But I 
could not check it ; the enthusiasm of youth still 
clung to me— despite my travels ; my pulses 



72 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

* 

bounded with the full glow of staple health ; 
behind me were the troubles which had harassed 
me for over two months. With that dishonest 
son of a Hindi, Soor Hadji Palloo, I had said my 
last word ; of the blatant rabble of Arabs, 
Banyans, and Baluches I had taken my last look ; 
with the Jesuits of the French Mission I had 
exchanged farewells, and before me beamed the 
sun of promise as he sped towards the Occident. 
Loveliness glowed around me. I saw fertile 
fields, riant vegetation, strange trees — I heard 
the cry of cricket and pee-wit, the sibilant sound 
of many insects, all of which seemed to tell me, 
'At last you are started.' What could I do but 
lift my face toward the pure-glowing sky, and 
cry, ' God be thanked !' 

The next three months were occupied in cover- 
ing the distance from Bagamoyo to Unyanyembe, 
and Stanley had his first real taste of African 
travel. Its story was one of struggles with 
relentless and savage nature and often still more 
savage peoples ; of conflicts with refractory 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 73 

porters ; of disaffection among the subordinate 
officers of the expedition ; of forced marches amid 
torrential rains and through miasmatic swamps ; 
of fightings with fever and dysentery ; of sleep- 
less nights and wearisome days ; of heroic bat- 
tling and triumph over unseen and unlooked for 
dangers and difficulties ; yet the indomitable 
will, courage, and energy of the solitary chief 
brought order out of chaos, snatched victory out 
of the very jaws of defeat, and inspired confidence 
in those weaker than himself. 

At Unyanyembe all the parts of the expedition 
were united, and a prolonged halt was made, 
partly for recuperation, but rendered doubly neces^ 
sary by the fact that a war, in progress between 
the Arabs and some native tribes, for a time 
barred further progress. But here Stanley w T as 
prostrated by a terrible attack of fever. Deser- 
tions, sickness, and thefts diminished both men 
and goods during this period of enforced idleness. 
Stanley's journal tells the tale more eloquently 
than any other pen could hope to tell it : 



74 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Kwihara, Friday, 11th August, 1871. — Arrived 
to-day from Zimbili, village of Bomboma's. I am 
quite disappointed and almost disheartened. But 
I have one consolation, I have done my duty by 
the Arabs, a duty I thought I owed to the kind- 
ness they received me with ; now, however, the 
duty is discharged, and I am free to pursue my 
own course. I feel happy, for some reasons, that 
the duty has been paid at such a slight sacrifice. 
Of course if I had lost my life in this enterprise, 
I . should have been justly punished. But apart 
from my duty to the consideration with which 
the Arabs had received me, was the necessity of 
trying every method of reaching Livingstone. 
This road, which the war with Mirambo has 
closed, is only a month's march from this place, 
and if the road could be opened with my aid, 
sooner than without it, why should I refuse my 
aid ? The attempt has been made for the second 
time to Ujiji — both have failed. I am going to 
try another route ; to attempt to go by the north 
would be folly. Mirambo' s mother and people, 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 75 

and the Wasui, are between me and Ujiji, with- 
out including the Watuta, who are his allies and 
robbers. The southern route seems to be the 
most practicable one. Very few people know 
anything of the country south ; those whom I 
have questioned concerning it speak of "want of 
w T ater" and robber Wazavira, as serious obsta- 
cles ; they also say that the settlements are few 
and far between. 

But before I can venture to try this new route, 
I have to employ a new set ,of men, as those 
whom I took to Mfuto consider their engagements 
at an end, and the fact of five of their number 
being killed, rather damps their ardor for travel- 
ing. It is useless to hope that Wanyamvvezi can 
be engaged, because it is against their custom to 
go with caravans, as carriers, during war time. 
My position is most serious. I have a good 
excuse for returning to the coast, but my con- 
science will not permit me to do so, after so 
much money has been expended, and so much 



76 HENRY It STANLEY. 

confidence has been placed in me. In fact, I feel 
I must die sooner than return. 

Saturday, August 12th. — My men, as f sup- 
posed they would, have gone ; they said that I 
engaged them to go to Ujiji by Mirambo's road. 
I have only thirteen left. With this small body 
of men, whither can I go? I have over one 
hundred loads in the store-room. Livingstone's 
caravan is also here ; his goods consist of seven- 
teen bales of cloth, twelve boxes, and six bags of 
beads. His men are luxuriating upon the best 
the country affords. 

If Livingstone is at Ujiji, he is now locked up 
with small means of escape. I may consider 
myself also locked up at Unyanyembe, and I 
suppose cannot go to Ujiji until this war with 
Mirambo is settled. Livingstone cannot get his 
goods, for they are here with mine. He cannot 
return to Zanzibar, and the road to the Nile is 
blocked up. He might, if he has men and stores, 
possibly reach Baker by traveling northwards, 
through Urundi, thence through Euanda, Karag- 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 77 

wah, Uganda, Unyoro, and Ubari to Gondokoro. 
Pagazis he cannot obtain, for the sources whence 
a supply might be obtained, are closed. It is an 
erroneous supposition to think that Livingstone, 
any more than any other energetic man of his 
calibre, can travel through Africa without some 
sort of an escort and a durable supply of market- 
able cloth and beads. 

I was told to-day by a man that when Living- 
stone was coming from Nyassa Lake towards the 
Tanganika (the very time that people thought 
him. murdered) he was met by Sayd bin Omar's 
caravan, which was bound for Ulamba. He was 
traveling with Mohammed bin Grharib. This 
Arab, who was coming from Urungu, met Liv- 
ingstone at Chi-cumbi's, or Kwa-chi-kumbi's, 
country, and traveled with him afterwards, I 
hear, to Manyuema or Manyema. Manyuema is 
forty marches from the north of Nyassa. Living- 
stone w T as walking ; he was dressed in American 
sheeting. He had lost all his cloth in Lake 
Liemba while crossing it in a boat. He had three 



78 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

canoes with him ; in one he put his cloth, another 
he loaded with his boxes and some of his men, 
into the third he went himself with two servants 
and two fishermen. The boat with his cloth was 
upset. On leaving Nyassa, Livingstone went to 
Ubissa, thence to Uemba, thence to Urungu. 
Livingstone wore a cap. He had a breech-load- 
ing double barrelled rifle with him, which fired 
fulminating balls. He was also armed with two 
revolvers. The Wahiyow with Livingstone told 
this man that their master had many men with 
him at first, but that several had deserted him. 

August 13th. — A caravan came in to-day from 
the sea- coast. They reported that William L. 
Farquhar, whom I left sick at Mpwapwa, Usa- 
gara, and his cook, were dead. Farquhar, I was 
told, died a few days after I had entered Ugogo, 
his cook died a few weeks later. My first impulse 
was for revenge. I believed that Leukole had 
played me false, and had poisoned him, or that he 
had been murdered in some other manner ; but a 
personal interview with the Msawahili who 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 79 

brought the news informing me that Farquhar 
had succumbed to his dreadful illness had done 
away with that suspicion. So far as I could 
understand him, Farquhar had in the morning 
declared himself well enough to proceed, but in 
attempting to rise, had fallen backward and died. 
I was also told that the Wasagara, possessing 
some superstitious notions respecting the dead, 
had ordered Jako to take the body out for burial, 
that Jako, not being able to carry it, had dragged 
the body to the jungle, and there left it naked 
without the slightest covering of earth, or any- 
thing else. 

" There is one of us gone, Shaw, my boy! 
Who will be the next ?" I remarked that night 
to my companion. 

Let us for a moment explain to the uninitiated 
the true mode of African travel. " In spite of all 
the books that have been lavished upon us by 
our great explorers, few people seem to have any 
accurate understanding of this most simple pro- 



80 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

cess. Some have the impression that everything 
is done in bullock- wagons — an idea . borrowed 
from the Cape, but hopelessly inapplicable to Cen- 
tral Africa, where a wheel at present would be as 
great a novelty as a polar bear. Others, at the 
opposite extreme, suppose that the explorer works 
along solely by compass, making a bee line for 
his destination, and steering his caravan through 
the trackless wilderness like a ship at sea. Now 
it may be a surprise to the unenlightened to 
learn that probably no explorer in forciug his 
passage through Africa has ever, for more than a 
few days at a time, been off some beaten track. 
Probably no country in the world, civilized or 
uncivilized, is better supplied with paths than 
this unmapped continent. Every village is con- 
nected with some other village, every tribe with 
the next tribe, every State with its neighbor, and 
therefore with all the rest. The explorer's busi- 
ness is simply to select from this network of 
tracks, keep a general direction, and hold on his 
way. Let him begin at Zanzibar, plant his foot 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 81 

on a native footpath, and set his face towards 
Tanganika. In eight months he will be there. 
He has simply to persevere. From village to vil- 
lage he will be handed on, zigzagging it ma) 7 be 
sometimes to avoid the impassible barriers of 
nature or the rarer perils of hostile tribes, but 
never taking to the woods, never guided solely by 
the stars, never in fact leaving a beaten track, 
till hundreds and hundreds of miles are between 
him and the sea, and his interminable footpath 
ends with a canoe, on the shores of Tanganika. 
Crossing the lake, landing near some native vil- 
lage, he picks up the thread once more. Again 
he plods on and on, now on foot, now by canoe, 
but always keeping his line of villages, until one 
day suddenly he sniffs the sea-breeze again, and 
his faithful foot-wide guide lands him on the 
Atlantic seaboard. 

" Nor is there any art in finding out these suc- 
cessive villages with their inter-communicating 
links. He must find them out. A whole army 
of guides, servants, carriers, soldiers and camp- 



82 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

followers accompany him in his march, and this 
nondescript regiment must be fed. Indian corn, 
cassava, mawere beans, and bananas — these do 
not grow wild even in Africa. Every meal has 
to be bought and paid for in cloth and beads ; and 
scarcely three days can pass without a call having 
to be made at some village where the necessary 
supplies can be obtained. A caravan, as a rule, 
must live from hand to mouth, and its march 
becomes simply a regulated procession through a 
chain of markets. Not, however, that there are 
any real markets — there are neither bazars nor 
stores in native Africa. Thousands of the villages 
through which the traveler eats his way may 
never have victualled a caravan before. But, 
with the chief's consent, which is usually easily 
purchased for a showy present, the villages 
unlock their larders, the women flock to the 
grinding stones, and basketf uls of food are swift- 
ly exchanged for unknown equivalents in beads 
and calico. 

" The native tracks just described are the same 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 83 

in character all over Africa. They are veritable 
footpaths, never over a foot in breadth, beaten as 
hard as adamant, and rutted beneath the level of 
the forest bed by centuries of native traffic. As 
a rule these footpaths are marvelously direct. 
Like the roads of the old Komans, they run 
straight on through everything, ridge and moun- 
tain and valley, never shying at obstacles, nor 
anywhere turning aside to breathe. Yet within 
this general straightforwardness there is a 
singular eccentricity and indirectness in detail. 
Although the African footpath is on the whole a 
bee-line, no fifty yards of it are ever straight. And 
the reason is not far to seek. If a stone is en- 
countered no native will ever think of removing it. 
Why should he ? It is easier to walk round it. 
The next man who comes that way will do the 
same. He knows that a hundred men are follow- 
ing him ; he looks at the stone ; a moment, and 
it might be unearthed and tossed aside, but no ; 
he also holds on his way. It is not that he resents 
the trouble, it is the idea that is wanting. It 



84 HENRY M. STANLEY, 

would no more occur to him that that stone was 
a displaceable object, and that for the general 
weal he might displace it, than that its feldspar 
was of the orthoclase variety. Generations and 
generations of men have passed that stone, and it 
still waits for a man with an altruistic idea. But 
it would be a very stony country indeed— and 
Africa is far from stony — that would wholly 
account for the aggravating obliqueness and inde- 
cision of the African footpath. Probably each 
four miles, on an average path, is spun out by an 
infinite series of minor sinuosities, to five or six. 
Now these deflections are not meaningless. Each 
has some history — a history dating back, perhaps, 
# thousand years, but all clue to which was lost 
centuries ago. The leading cause, probably, is 
fallen trees. When a tree falls across a path no 
man ever removes it. As in the case of the stone, 
the native goes round it. It is too green to burn 
in his hut ; before it is dry, and the white ants 
have eaten it, the new detour has become part 




PROFILE MAP OF AFRICA. 



• THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 87 

and parcel of the path. The smaller irregularities, 
on the other hand, represent the trees and stumps 
of the primeval forest where the track was made 
at first. But whatever the cause, it is certain 
that for persistent straightforwardness in the 
general, and utter vacillation and irresolution in 
the particular, the African roads are unique in 
engineering." 

Three distinct Africas are known to the 
modern world — North Africa, where men go for 
health ; South Africa, where they go for money ; 
and Central Africa, where they go for adventure. 
The first, the old Africa of Augustine and Car- 
thage, every one knows from history ; the geo- 
graphy of the second, the Africa of the Zulu and 
the diamond, has been taught us by two Universal 
Educators— War and the Stock Exchange ; but 
our knowledge of the third, the Africa of Living- 
stone and Stanley, is still fitly symbolized by the 
vacant look upon our maps which tells how long 
this mysterious land has kept its secret. 



g8 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Africa, generally speaking, is a vast, ill-formed 
triangle. It has no peninsulas ; it has almost no 
islands or frays or fjords. But three great inlets, 
three mighty rivers piercing it to the very heart, 
have been allocated by a kind Nature, one to each 
of its solid sides. On the north is the Nile, the 
river of the past, flowing through Egypt, as Leigh 
Hunt says, "like some grave, mighty thought 
threading a dream ;" on the west, the river of the 
future, the not less mysterious Congo ; and on the 
east, the little known Zambesi. 

The physical features of this great continent are 
easily grasped. From the coast a low scorched 
plain, reeking with malaria, extends inland in 
unbroken monotony for two or three hundred 
miles. This is succeeded by mountains, slowly 
rising into a plateau, some 2,000 or 3,000 feet high; 
and this, at some hundreds of miles distance, 
forms the pedestal for a second plateau as high 
again. This last plateau, 4000 to 5000 feet high, 
may be said to occupy the whole of Central 
Africa. It is only on the large scale, however, 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 89 

that these are to be reckoned plateaux at all. 
When one is upon them he sees nothing but 
mountains and valleys and plains of the ordinary 
type, covered for the most part with forest. 

Nature, says Drummond, has supplied each side 
of Africa with one great river. By going some 
hundreds of miles southward along the coast from 
Zanzibar, the traveler reaches the mouth of the 
Zambesi. Livingstone sailed up this river once, 
and about a hundred miles from its mouth dis- 
covered another river, twisting away northwards 
among the mountains. The great explorer was 
not the man to lose such a chance of penetrating 
the interior. He followed this river up, and after 
many wanderings found himself on the shores of 
a mighty lake. The river is named the Shire, 
and the lake — the existence of which was quite 
unknown before — is Lake Nyassa. Lake Nyassa 
is three hundred and fifty miles long ; so that, 
with the Zambesi, the Shire, and this great lake, 
we have the one thing required to open up East 
Central Africa —a water- route to the interior. 



90 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

But this is not all. Two hundred and fifty miles 
from the end of Lake Nyassa, another lake of still 
nobler proportions takes up the thread of com- 
munication. Lake Tanganika is four hundred 
and fifty miles in length. Between the lake 
stands a lofty plateau, cool, healthy, accessible, and 
without any physical barrier to interrupt the 
explorer's march. By this route the Victoria 
Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza may be ap- 
proached with less fatigue, less risk, and not less 
speed, than by the overland trail from Zanzibar. 
At one point also, along this line, one is within a 
short march of that other great route which must 
ever be regarded as the trunk-line of the African 
continent. The watershed of the Congo lies on 
this Nyassa-Tanganika plateau. This is the 
stupendous natural highway on which so much of 
the future of East Central Africa must yet 
depend. 

Drummond says that Africans w T ill do anything 
for flesh in whatever form. "Eggs are never 
eaten by the natives, but always set ; although 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 91 

if you offer to buy them, the natives will bring 
you a dozen from a sitting hen, which they 
assure you were laid that very morning. In the 
interior, on many occasions afterwards, these 
protestations were tested, and always proved 
false. One time, when nearly famished and far 
from camp, I was brought a few eggs which a 
chief himself guaranteed had that very hour been 
laid. With sincere hope that he might be right, 
but with much misgiving, I ordered the two 
freshest looking to be boiled. With the despair 
of a starving man I opened them. They were 
cock and hen 1" 

Breakfast and luncheon and dinner are all the 
same in Africa. " There is no beef, nor mutton, 
nor bread, nor flour, nor sugar, nor salt, nor 
anything whatever, except an occasional fowl, 
which an Englishman can eat. Hence the enor- 
mous outfit which he must carry with him. No 
one has any idea of what can be had in tins till he 
camps out abroad. Every conceivable digestible 
and indigestible is to be had tinned, every form 



92 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of fish, flesh fowl and game, every species of 
vegetable and fruit, every soup, sweet and 
entree ; but after two or three months of this sort 
of thing you learn that this tempting semblance 
of variety is a gigantic imposition. The sole dif- 
ference between these various articles lies, like 
the Ehine wines, in the label. Plum pudding or 
kippered herring taste just the same. Whether 
you begin dinner with tinned calves-foot jelly or 
end with tinned salmon makes no difference ; 
and after six months it is only by a slight feeling 
of hardness that you do not swallow the tins 
themselves." 

About the middle of August the expedition 
made its first acquaintance with fever, that 
scourge of the white man who essays to travel in 
Africa. Shaw and Stanley werd both taken sick. 

Malarial fever is the one sad certainty which 
every African traveler must face. For months 
he may escape, but its finger is upon him, and 
well for him if he has a friend near when it 
finally overtakes him. It is preceded for weeks, 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 93 

or even for -a month or two, by unaccountable 
irritability, depression and weariness. On the 
march with his men he has scarcely started when 
he sighs for the noon-day rest. Putting it down 
to mere laziness, he goads himself on by draughts 
from the water-bottle, and totters forward a mile 
or two more. Next he finds himself skulking 
into the forest on the pretext of looking at a 
specimen, and, when his porters are out of sight, 
throws himself under a tree in utter limpness and 
despair. Boused by mere shame, he staggers 
along the trail, and as he nears the midday camp 
puts on a spurt to conceal his defeat, which 
finishes him for the rest of the day. This is 
a good place for specimens he tells the men — the 
tent may be pitched for the night. This goes on 
day after day till the crash comes— first cold and 
pain, then heat and pain, then every kind of pain 
and every degree of heat, then delirium, then the 
life-and-death struggle. He rises, if he does rise, 
a shadow 5 and slowly accumulates strength for 
the next attack, which he knows too well will 



91 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

not disappoint him. No one has ever yet got to 
the bottom of African fever. Its geographical 
distribution is still unmapped, but generally it 
prevails over the whole east and west coasts 
within the tropical limit, along all the river- 
courses, on the shores of the inland lakes, and in 
all low-lying and marshy districts. The higher 
plateaux, presumably, are comparatively free 
from it, but in order to reach these, malarious 
districts of greater or smaller area have to be 
traversed. There the system becomes saturated 
with fever, which often develops long after the 
infected region is left behind. 

By August 29th Shaw was out of danger, 
yet, says Stanley, I am unsuccessful as yet 
in procuring soldiers. I almost despair of ever 
being able to move from here. It is such a 
drowsy, sleepy, slow, dreaming country. Arabs, 
Wangwana, Wanyamwezi, are all alike — all care- 
less how time flies. Their to-morrow means 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 95 

sometimes within a month. To me it is simply 
maddening. 

August 30th. — Shaw will not work. I cannot 
get him to* stir himself. I have petted him and 
coaxed him ; I have even cooked little luxuries for 
him myself. And, while I am straining every 
nerve to get ready for Ujiji, Shaw is satisfied with 
looking on listlessly. What a change from the 
ready-handed bold man he was at Zanzibar. 

I sat down by his bedside to day with my palm 
and needle, in order to encourage him, and to-day 
for the first time, I told him that I did not care 
about the geography of the country half as much 
as I cared about FINDING LIVINGSTONE ! I 
told him, for the first time, " Now, my dear Shaw, 
you think probably I have been sent here to find 
the depth of the Tanganika. Not a bit of it, 
man; I was told to find Livingstone. Ifc is to 
find Livingstone I am here. It is to find Living- 
stone I am going. Don't you see, old fellow, the 
importance of the mission ; don't you see what 
reward you will get from Mr. Bennett, if you will 



96 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

help me. I am sure if ever you come to New 
York, you will never be in want of a fifty-dollar 
bill. So shake yourself ; jump about ; look 
lively. Say you will not die ; that is fialf the bat- 
tle. Snap your fingers at the fever. I will guar- 
antee the fever won't kill you. I have medicine 
enough for a regiment here !" 

Bah ! Bah ! I was talking to a lifeless mum- 
my. His eyes lit up a little, but the light that 
shone in them shortly faded, and died. I was 
quite disheartened. I made some strong punch, 
to put fire in his veins, that I might see life in 
him. I put sugar and eggs, and seasoned it with 
lemon and spice. " Drink, Shaw," said I, "-and 
forget your miserable infirmities. Don't breathe 
in my face, man, as if you were about to die. 
Leave off this pantomime. You are not sick, 
dear fellow ; it is only ennui you are feeling. 
Look at Selim, there. Now, I will bet any 
amount that he will not die ; that I will carry 
him home safe to his friends at Jerusalem ! I 
will carry you home also, if you will let me." 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 97 

Piff-puff at his nasty pipe. Hear him breathe ! 
You would think he was dying ; but he is not 
even sick. He told me, only the other day, that 
he knew every trick of old sea-salts when they 
wished to shirk duty at sea. I am sure he is 
practicing a trick on me. This intermittent 
fever ! I know every stage of it ; and I feel con- 
vinced he has not got it. 

Of one thing, I feel sure, that if I took a stick I 
could take the nonsense out of him. 

September 1st. — According to Thani bin Abdul 
lah, whom I visited to-day at his tembe in Maroro, 
Mirambo lost two hundred men in the attack 
upon Tabora, while the Arabs' losses were five 
Arabs, thirteen freemen and eight slaves, besides 
three tembes, and over one hundred small huts 
burned, two hundred and eighty ivory tusks and 
sixty cows and bullocks captured. 

September 3rd— Beceived a packet of letters 
and newspapers from Captain Webb, at Zanzibar. 
What a good thing it is that one's friends, even 
in far America, think of the absent one in Africa ! 



98 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

They tell me that no one dreams of my being in 
Africa yet. 

I applied to Sheikh bin Nasib to-day to permit 
Livingstone's caravan to go under my charge to 
Ujiji, but he would not listen to it. He says he 
feels certain I am going to my death. 

September 4ih. — Shaw is quite well today, he 
says. Selim is down with the fever. My force 
is gradually increasing, though some of my 
old soldiers are falling off. Umgareza is blind ; 
Baruti has the small-pox very badly ; Bilali has 
a strange disease, an ulcer or something, rear 
ward ; Sadala has the Mukunguru (the intermit- 
tent). 

September 5th. — Baruti died this morning. He 
was one of my best soldiers ; and was one of 
those men who accompanied Speke to Egypt. 
Baruti is number seven of those who have died 
since leaving Zanzibar. 

To day my ears have been poisoned with the 
reports of the Arabs about the state of the coun- 
try I am about to travel through. " The roads 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 99 

are bad ; they are all stopped ; the Buga-Ruga 
are out in the forests ; the Wakonongo are com- 
ing from the south to help Mirambo ; the Wash- 
ensi are at war, one tribe against another." My 
men are getting dispirited, they have imbibed the 
fears of the Arabs and the Wanyamwezi. Bom- 
bay begins to feel that I had better go back to the 
coast, and try again some other time. 

We buried Baruti under the shade of the banyan 
tree, a few yards west of my tembe. The grave 
was made four and a-half feet deep and three 
feet wide. At the bottom, on one side, a narrow 
trench was excavated, into which the body was 
rolled, on his side, with his face turned towards 
Mecca. The body was dressed in a doti and 
a-half of new American sheeting. After it was 
properly placed in its narrow bed, a sloping roof 
of sticks, covered over with matting and old 
canvas, was made, to prevent the earth from 
falling over the body. The grave was then filled, 
the soldiers laughing merrily. On the top of the 
grave was planted a small shrub, and into a small 



100 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

hole, made with the hand, was poured water, lest 
he might feel thirsty— they said — on his way to 
Paradise ; water was then sprinkled all over the 
grave, and the gourd broken. This ceremony 
being ended, the men recited the Arabic Fat-hah, 
after which they left the grave of their dead 
comrade, to think no more of him. 

September 7 th. — An Arab, named Mohammed, 
presented me to-day with a little boy slave, called 
"Ndugu M'Hali" (my brother's wealth). As I 
did not like the name, I called the chiefs of mv 
caravan together, and asked them to give him a 
better name. One suggested "Simba" (a lion), 
another said he thought "Ngombe" (a cow), 
would suit the boy child ; another thought he 
ought to be called u Mirambo," which raised a 
loud laugh. Bombay thought " Bombay Mdogo" 
would suit my black skinned infant very well. 
Ulimengo, however, after looking at his quick 
eyes, and noting his celerity of movement, pro- 
nounced the name Ka-lu-lu as the best for him, 
" because," said he, " just look at his eyes, so 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 101 

bright ! look at his form, so slim ! watch his 
movements, how quick ! Yes, Kalulu is his 
name." " Yes, bana," said the others, "let it 
be Kalulu." 

" Kalulu " is a Kisawahili term for the young 
of the blue buck (perpusilla) antelope. 

" Well, then," said I, water being brought in a 
huge tin pan, — Selim, who was willing to stand 
godfather, holding him over the water, — " let his 
name henceforth be Kalulu, and let no man take 
it from him," and thus it was that the little 
black boy of Mohammed's came to be called 
Kalulu. 

The expedition is increasing in numbers ; it is 
now composed of two white men, one Arab boy, 
one Hindi, twenty -nine Wangwana, one boy 
from Londa (Cazembes), one boy from Uganda, 
one boy from Liemba or Uwemba. We had 
quite an alarm before dark. Much firing was 
heard at Tabora, which led us to anticipate an 
attack on Kwihara. It turned out, however, to 
be a salute fired in honor of the arrival of Sultan 



102 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Kitambi to pay a visit to Mkasiwa, Sultan of 
Unyanyembe. 

September 8th. — Towards night Sheikh bin 
Nasib received a letter from an Arab at Mfuto, 
reporting that an attack was made on that place 
by Mirambo and his Watuta allies. It also 
warned him to bid the people of Kwihara hold 
themselves in readiness, because if Mirambo suc- 
ceeded in storming Mfuto, he would march direct 
on Kwihara. 

September 9th. — Mirambo was defeated with 
severe loss yesterday in his attack upon Mfuto. 
He was successful in an assault he made upon a 
small Wanyanwezi village, but when he attempt 
ed to storm Mfuto, he was repulsed with severe 
loss, losing three of his principal men. Upon 
withdrawing his forces from the attack, the 
inhabitants sallied out and followed him to the 
forest of Umanda, where he was again utterly 
routed, himself ingloriously flying from the field. 

The heads of his chief men slain in the attack 
were brought to Kwihara, the boma of Mkasiwa. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 103 

September 11th. — Shaw is a sentimental drivel- 
ler with a large share of the principles of Joseph 
Surface within his nature. He is able at times 
to kindle into an eloquent rant about the vices of 
mankind, particularly those of rich people. His 
philippics on this topic deserved a better audience 
than I furnished him. 

He has a habit of being self- absorbed — is an 
oddity quite the reverse of JackBunsby. Instead 
of looking towards the horizon, he regards the 
ground at his feet with a look which seems to 
say, there is something wrong somewhere, and I 
am trying to find out where it can be, and how 
to rectify it. 

He told me to-day his father had been a captain 
in Her Majesty's navy, that he had been present 
at four levees of Queen Victoria. This can 
hardly be, however, as I cannot imagine a naval 
captain's son being so ignorant of penmanship as 
scarcely to be able to write his own name, nor can 
I see how it is possible that he could have been 
presented to the Queen, for I have always under- 



104 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

stood that the Court of St. James's is the most 
aristocratic in Europe. 

He is very angry, though, with me, because I 
laugh at him, and has just opened a sentimental 
battery on me which makes me almost cry out 
with vexation that I encumbered myself with 
such a fool. 

September 14dh. — The Arab boy Selim is deliri- 
ous from constant fevers. Shaw is sick again, 
or pretends to be. These two occupy most of my 
time. I am turned into a regular nurse, for I 
have no one to assist me in attending upon them. 
If I try to instruct Abdul Kader in the art of 
being useful, his head is so befogged with the 
villainous fumes of Unyamwezi tobacco, that he 
wanders bewildered about, breaking dishes and 
upsetting cooked dainties, until I get so exasper- 
ated that my peace of mind is broken completely 
for a full hour. If I ask Feraj ji, my now formally 
constituted cook, to assist, his thick wooden head 
fails to receive an idea, and I am thus obliged to 
play the part of chef de cuisine. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 105 

September loth. — The third month of my resi- 
dence in Unyanembe is almost finished, and I am 
still here, but I hope to be gone before the 23rd 
inst. 

All last night, until 9 A. M. this morning, my 
soldiers danced and sang to the means of their 
dead comrades, whose bones now bleach in the 
forests of Wilyankuru. Two or three huge pots 
of pombe failed to satisfy the raging thirst 
which the vigorous exercise they were engaged 
in created. So, early this morning, I was called 
upon to contribute a shukka for another potful of 
the potent liquor. 

To-day I was busy selecting the loads for each 
soldier and pagazi. In order to lighten their 
labor as much as possible, I reduced each from 
seventy pounds to fifty pounds, by which I hope 
to be enabled to make some long marches. I 
have been able to engage ten pagazis during the 
last two or three days. 

I have two or three men still very sick, and it 
is almost useless to expect that they will be able 



106 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to carry anything, but I am in hope that other 
men may be engaged to take their places before 
the actual day of departure, which now seems to 
be drawing near rapidly. 

September 16th. — We have almost finished our 
work— on the fifth day from this — God willing — 
we shall march. I engaged two more pagazis, 
besides two guides, named Asmani and Mabruki. 
If vastness of the human form could terrify any 
one, certainly Asman's appearance is well calcu- 
lated to produce that effect. He stands consider- 
ably over six feet without shoes, and has shoul- 
ders broad enough for two ordinary men. 

To-morrow I mean to give the people a farewell 
feast, to celebrate our departure from this forbid- 
ding and unhappy country. 

September 11th.— The banquet is ended. I 
slaughtered two bullocks, and had a barbecue ; 
three sheep, two goats, and fifteen chickens, one 
hundred and twenty pounds of rice, twenty large 
loaves of bread, made of Indian corn flour, one 
hundred eggs, ten pounds of butter, and five 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 107 

gallons of sweet milk, were the contents of which 
the banquet was formed. The men invited their 
friends and neighbors, and about one hundred 
women and children partook of it. 

After the banquet was ended, the pombe, or 
native beer, was brought in in five gallon pots, 
and the people commenced their dance, which 
continues even now as I write. 

September 19th. — I had a slight attack of fever 
to day, which has postponed our departure. 
Selim and Shaw are both recovered. Selim tells 
me that Shaw has said that I would die like a 
donkey ; and that he said he would take charge 
of my journals and trunks, and proceed to the 
coast immediately, if I die. This afternoon, he 
is stated to have said that he does not intend to 
go to Ujiji, but that when I am gone he will 
stock the yard full of chickens, in order to be 
able to get fresh eggs every day, and that he will 
buy a cow. from which he will be able to procure 
fresh milk daily. 

At night Shaw came to me while the fever was 



108 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

at its height, to ask me to whom I would like to 
have him write in case I should die, because, 
said he, even the strongest of us may die. I told 
him to go and mind his own business and not be 
croaking near me. 

About 8 p. m. Sheikh bin Nasib came to me 
imploring me not to go away to-morrow, because 
I was so sick. Thani Sakhburi suggested to me 
that I might stay another month ; in answer, I 
told them that white men are not accustomed to 
break their words. I had said I would go, and I 
intended to go. 

Sheikh bin Nasib gave up all hope of inducing 
me to remain another day, and he has gone away 
with a promise to write to Syed Burghash to tell 
him how obstinate I am, and that I am deter- 
mined to be killed. This was a parting shot. 

About 10 p. m. the fever had gone. All were 
asleep in the tembe but myself, and an unutter 
able loneliness came on me as I reflected on my 
position and my intentions, and felt the utter 
lack of sympathy with me in all around. Even 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 109 

my own white assistant, with whom I had striven 
hard, was less sympathizing than my little black 
boy Kalulu. It requires more nerve than I pos- 
sess to dispel all the dark presentiments that 
come upon the mind. But probably what I call 
presentiments are simply the impress on the mind 
of the warnings which these false-hearted Arabs 
have repeated so often. This melancholy and 
loneliness, I feel, may probably have their origin 
from the same cause. The single candle, which 
hardly lights up the dark shade that fills the cor- 
ners of my room, is but a poor incentive to cheer- 
fulness. I feel as though I were imprisoned 
between stone walls. But why should I feel as if 
baited by these stupid, slow-witted Arabs and 
their warnings and croakings ? I fancy a suspic- 
ion haunts my mind, as I write, that there lies 
some motive behind all this. I wonder if these 
Arabs tell me all these things to keep me here, in 
the hope that I might be induced another time to 
assist them in their war with Mirambo ! If they 
think so, they are much mistaken, for I have 



HO HENRY M. STANLEY. 

taken a solemn, enduring oath, — an oath to be 
kept while the least hope of life remains in me, — 
not to be tempted to break the resolution I have 
formed, never to give up the search until I find 
Livingstone alive, or find his dead body ; and 
never to return home without the strongest pos- 
sible proofs that he is alive, or that he is dead. 
No living man, or living men, shall stop me ; only 
death can prevent me. But death— not even 
this ; I shall not die, I will not die, I cannot -die ! 
And something tells me, I do not know what it is 
— perhaps it is the ever-living hopefulness of my 
own nature, perhaps it is the natural presump- 
tion born out of an abundant and glowing vital- 
ity, or the outcome of an overweening confidence 
in one's self — anyhow and everyhow, something 
tells me to-night I shall find him, and — write it 
larger— FIND HIM! FIND HIM! Have I 
uttered a prayer ? I shall sleep calmly to-night. 

All this time there was no trustworthy news of 
Livingstone. At last, on the 20th of September, 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. Ill 

1871, Stanley determined to set out for Ujiji by 
the southerly route. Fourteen clays' travel in a 
south-westerly direction, with a gain of one 
degree of latitude, nearly every mile of the route 
presenting some new peril, found the expedition 
brought to a sudden halt by the report of another 
war between native tribes right in the line of 
march. So the course was changed to due west, 
through the forest, so as to strike Lake Tangan- 
ika further north than was at first intended. 
But from this time on we simply paraphrase 
Stanley's own story. 

" On the 29th," says the journal, " we left camp, 
and after a few minutes we were in view of the 
sublimest, but ruggedest scenes we had yet 
beheld in Africa. The country was cut up in all 
directions by deep, wild, and narrow ravines 
trending in all directions, but generally toward 
. the north-west, while on either side rose enor- 
mous square masses of the naked rock (sandstone), 
sometimes towering and rounded, sometimes 
pyramidal, sometimes in truncated cones, some- 



112 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

times in circular ridges, with sharp, rugged, 
naked backs, with but little vegetation anywhere 
visible, except it obtained a precarious tenure in 
the fissured crown of some gigantic hill-top, 
whither some soil had fallen, or at the base of the 
reddish ochre scarps which everywhere lifted 
their fronts to our view. 

" A long series of descents down rocky gullies, 
wherein we were environed by threatening 
masses of disintegrated rock, brought us to a dry, 
stony ravine, with mountain heights looming 
above us some thousand feet high. This ravine 
we followed, winding around in all directions, but 
which gradually widened, however, into a broad 
plain, with a western trend. The road, leaving 
this, struck across a low ridge to the north ; and 
we were in view of deserted settlements where 
the villages were built on frowning castellated 
masses of rock. Near an upright mass of rock 
over seven t y feet high, and about fifty yards in 
diameter, which dwarfed the gigantic sycamore 
close to it, we made our camp, after five hours 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 113 

and thirty minutes' continuous and rapid march- 
ing. 

" The people were very hungry ; they had 
eaten every scrap of meat, and every grain they 
possessed, twenty hours before, and there was no 
immediate prospect of food. I had but a pound 
and a half of flour left, and this would not have 
sufficed to begin to feed a force of over forty-five 
people ; but I had something like thirty pounds 
of tea and twenty pounds of sugar left, and I at 
once, as soon as we arrived at camp, ordered 
every kettle to be filled and placed on the fire, 
and then made tea for all, giving each man a 
quart of a hot, grateful beverage, well sweetened. 
Parties stole out also into the depths of the jun- 
gle to search for wild fruit, and soon returned 
laden with baskets of the wood-peach and tama- 
rind fruit, which, though it did not satisfy, 
relieved them. That night, before going to sleep, 
the Wangwana set up a loud prayer to ' Allah ' 
to give them food. 

' We rose betimes in the morning, determined 



114 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to travel on until food could be procured or we 
dropped down from, sheer fatigue and weakness. 
Khinoceros' tracks abounded, and buffalo seemed 
to be plentiful, but we never beheld a living 
thing. We crossed scores of short steeps, and 
descended as often into the depths of dry, stony 
gullies, and then finally entered a valley, bounded 
on one side by a triangular mountain with perpen- 
dicular sides, and on the other by a bold group, a 
triplet of hills. While marching down the valley 
—which soon changed its dry, bleached aspect to 
a vivid green — we saw a forest in the distance, 
and shortly found ourselves in corn-fields. Look- 
ing keenly around for a village, we descried it on 
the summit of the lofty triangular hill on our 
right. A loud exultant shout was raised at the 
discovery. The men threw down their packs and 
began to clamor for food. Volunteers were 
asked to come forward to take cloth and scale the 
heights to obtain it from the village at any 
price. While three or four sallied off we rested on 
the ground, quite worn out. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 115 

"In about an hour the foraging party returned 
with the glorious tidings that food was plentiful ; 
that the village we saw w r as called " Welled Nzo- 
gera's' — the son of Nzogera — by which, of course, 
we knew that we were in Uvinza, Nzogera being 
the principal chief of Uvinza. We were further 
informed that Nzogera., the father, was at war 
with Lokanda-Mira, about some salt-pans in the 
valley of the Malagarazi, and that it would be 
difficult to go to Ujiji by the usual road, owing to 
this war; but, for a consideration, the son of 
Nzogera was willing to supply us with guides who 
would take us safely by a northern road to 

Ujiji- 

" October Zlst. Tuesday. — Camp in jungle. 

Direction of road; north -by -east. Time occupied 

by march, four hours fifteen minutes. Our road 

led E. N. E. Soon we turned our faces north-w r est 

and prepared to cross the marsh ; and the guides 

informed us, as we halted on its eastern bank, of 

a terrible catastrophe which occurred a few yards 

above where we were preparing to cross. They 



116 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

told of an Arab and his caravan, consisting of 
thirty-five slaves, who had suddenly sunk out of 
sight, and who were never more heard of. This 
marsh, as it appeared to us, presented a breadth 
of some hundreds of yards, on which grew a close 
network of grass, with much decayed matter 
mixed up with it. In the centre of this, and 
underneath it, ran a broad, deep and rapid stream. 
As the guides proceeded across, the men stole 
after them with cautious footsteps. As they 
arrived near the centre we began to see this 
unstable grassy bridge, so curiously provided by 
nature for us, move up and down in heavy languid 
undulations, like the swell of the sea after a 
storm Where the two asses of the expedition 
moved, the grassy waves rose a food high ; but 
suddenly, one unfortunate animal plunged his feet 
through, and as he was unable to rise, he soon 
made a deep hollow, which was rapidly filling 
with water. With the aid of ten men, however, 
we were enabled to lift him bodily up and land 
him on a firmer part, and guiding them both 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 117 

across rapidly, the entire caravan crossed without 
accident. 

" On arriving at the other side, we struck off 
to the north, and found ourselves in a delightful 
country, in every way suitable for agriculturists. 
Great rocks rose here and there, but in their 
fissures rose stately trees, under whose umbrage 
nestled the villages of the people. 

"November 1st. — Striking north-west, after 
leaving our camp and descending the slope of a 
mountain, we soon beheld the anxiously looked-f or 
Malagarazi, a narrow but deep stream, flowing 
through a valley pent in by lofty mountains. 
Fish eating birds lined the trees on its banks ; 
villages were thickly scattered about. Food was 
abundant and cheap. 

'About 10 a. m. appeared from the direction 
of Ujiji a caravan of eighty Waguhha, a tribe 
which occupies a tract of country on the south- 
western side of the Lake Tanganika. We asked 
the news, and were told a white man had just 



118 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

arrived at Ujiji from Manyuema. This news 
startled us all. 

" ' A white man V we asked. 

" ' Yes, a wiiite man/ they replied. 

" ' How is he dressed f 

" ' Like the master/ they answered, referring to 
me. 

" ' Is he young, or old ?' 

" ' He is old. He has white hair on his face, and 
is sick.' 

44 ' Where has he come from V 

"'From a very far country away beyond 
Uguhha, called Manyuema.' 

" ' Indeed ! and is he stopping at Ujiji now V 

" ' Yes, we saw him about eight days ago.' 

" ' Do you think he will stop there until we see 
him ?' 

" ' Sigue' ( don't know). 

Was he ever at Ujiji before V 

Yes, he went away a long time ago. 5 

" Hurrah ! This is Livingstone ! He must be 
Livingstone ! He can be no other ; but still— he 



U i 



U i 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 119 

may be some one else — some one from the West 
Coast — or perhaps he is Baker ! No ; Baker has 
no white hair on his face. But we must now 
march quick, lest he hears we are coming and 
runs away. 

" I addressed my men, and asked them if they 
were w r illing to march to Ujiji without a single 
halt, and then promised them, if they acceded to 
my wishes, two doti each man. All answered in 
the affirmative, almost as much rejoiced as I was 
myself. But I was madly rejoiced ; intensely 
eager to resolve the burning question, ' Is it 
Dr. David Livingstone?' God grant me patience, 
but I do w^ish there was a railroad, or at least 
horses in this country. With a horse I could 
reach Ujiji in about twelve hours. 

" But we had no time to loiter by the way to 
indulge our joy. I was impelled onward by my 
almost uncontrollable feelings. I wished to 
resolve my doubts and fears. Was HE still there ? 
Had HE heard of any coming ? Would HE fly ? 

" November 10th. Friday. — The two hundred 



120 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and thirty- sixth day from Bagamoyo, and the 
fifty-first day from Unyanyembe. General direc- 
tion to Ujiji, west- by-south. Time of march, six 
hours. . 

"It is a happy, glorious morning. The air is 
fresh and cool. The sky lovingly smiles on the 
earth and her children. The deep woods are 
crowned in bright green leafage ; the water of 
the Mkuti, rushing under the emerald shade 
afforded by the bearded banks, seems to challenge 
us for the race to Ujiji, with its continuous 
brawl. 

"We are all outside the village cane fence, 
every man of us looking as spruce, as neat, and 
happy as when he embarked on the dhows at 
Zanzibar, which seems to us to have been ages 
ago — we have witnessed and experienced so 
much. 

" ' Forward!' 

"'Ay, Wallah, ay Wallah, bana yango !' and 
the light-hearted braves stride away at a rate 
which must soon bring us within view of Ujiji. 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 121 

We ascend a hill overgrown with bamboo, 
descend into a ravine, through which dashes an 
impetuous little torrent, ascend another short 
hill, then, along a smooth footpath running 
across the slope of a long ridge, we push on as 
only eager, light-hearted men can do. 

"In two hours I am warned to prepare for a 
view of the Tanganika, for, from the top of a 
steep mountain the kirangozi says I can see it. I 
almost vent the feelings of my heart in cries. 
But wait, we must behold it first. And we press 
forward and up the hill breathlessly, lest the 
grand scene hasten away. We are at last on the 
summit. Ah ! ndt yet can it be seen. A little 
further on — just youder, oh ! there it is — a silvery 
gleam. I merely catch sight of it between the 
trees, and — but here it is at last ! True — THE 
TANGANIKA ! and there are the blue-black 
mountains of Ugoma and Ukaramba. An im- 
mense broad sheet, a burnished bed of silver — 
lucid canopy of blue above — lofty mountains are 
its valances, palm forests form its fringes ! The 



122 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Tanganika ! — Hurrah ! and the men respond to 
the exultant cry of the Anglo-Saxon with the 
lungs of Stentors, and the great forests and the 
hills seem to share in our triumph. 

" We are descending the western slope of the 
mountain, with the valley of the Liuche before 
us. Something like an hour before noon we have 
gained the thick matete brake, which grows on 
both banks of the river ; we wade through the 
clear stream, arrive on the other side, emerge out 
of the brake, and the gardens of the Wajiji are 
around us— a perfect marvel of vegetable wealth. 
Details escape my hasty and partial observation. 
I am almost overpowered with my own emotions. 
I notice the graceful palms, neat plots green with 
vegetable plants, and small villages surrounded 
with frail fences of the matete-cane. 

" We push on rapidly, lest the news of our 
coming might reach the people of Ujiji before we 
come in sight and are ready for them. We halt 
at a little brook, then ascend the long slope of a 
naked ridge, the very last of the myriads we have 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 123 

crossed. This alone prevents us from seeing the 
lake in all its vastness. We arrive at the summit, 
travel across and arrive at its western rim, and — 
pause, reader — the port of Ujiji is below us, 
embowered in the palms, only five hundred yards 
from us. 

" i Unfurl the flags, and load your guns !' 

" ' Ay, Wallah, ay Wallah, bana !' respond the 
men, eagerly. 

" 'One, two, three — fire !' 

" A volley from nearly fifty guns roars like a 
salute from a battery of artillery ; we shall note 
its effect presently on the peaceful-looking village 
below. 

" Before we had gone a hundred yards our 
repeated volleys had the effect desired. We had 
awakened Ujiji to the knowledge that a caravan 
was coming, and the people were witnessed rush- 
ing up in hundreds to meet us. The mere sight 
of the flags informed every one immediately that 
we were a caravan, but the American flag borne 
aloft by gigantic Asamani, whose face was one 



124 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

vast smile on this day, rather staggered them at 
first. However, many of the people who now 
approached us remembered the flag. They had 
seen it float above the American Consulate, and 
from the mast-head of many a ship in the harbor 
of Zanzibar, and they were soon heard welcoming 
the beautiful flag with cries of ' Bindera Kisun- 
gu !' — a white man's flag ! ' Bindera Merikani P 
— the American flag ! . 

"We were now about three hundred yards 
from the village of Ujiji, and the crowds are 
dense about me. Suddenly, I hear a voice on my 
right say : 

" ' Good-morning, sir !' 

u Startled at hearing this greeting in the midst 
of such a crowd of black people, I turn sharply 
around in search of the man, and see him at my 
side, with the blackest of faces, but animated and 
joyous — a man dressed in a long white shirt, with 
a turban of American sheeting around his woolly 
head, and I ask : 

" ' Who the mischief are you V 



U i 



a i 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 125 

(n Iam Susi, the servant of Dr. Livingstone,' 
said he, smiling, and showing a gleaming row of 
teeth. 

" ' What ! Is Dr. Livingstone here V 
Yes, sir.' 
In this village V 

" ' Yes, sir.' 

'* ' Are you sure V 

" ■ Sure, sure, sir. Why, I leave him just 
now.' 

" i Good-morning, sir,' said another voice. 

" f Hallo,' said I, ' is this another one?' 

" ' Yes, sir.' 

" ' Well, what is your name V 

" ' My name is Chumah, sir.' 

"'What! are you Chumah, the friend of 
Wekotani ?' 

u 'Yes, sir.' 

" ' And is the Doctor well?' 

" ' Not very well, sir.' 

Where has he been so long V 
In Manyuema.' 






.. < 



126 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



u i 



Now, you Susi, run, and tell the Doctor I 



am coming/ 

" ' Yes, sir,' and off he darted like a madman. 

" But, by this time we were within two hun- 
dred yards of the village, and the multitude was 
getting denser, and almost preventing our march. 
Flags and streamers were out ; Arabs and Wan- 
gwana were pushing their way through the 
natives in order to greet us, for, according to 
their account, we belonged to them. But the 
great wonder of all was, ' How did you come 
from Unyanyembe V 

"Soon Susi came running back, and asked me 
my name ; he had told the Doctor that I was 
coming, but the Doctor was too surprised to 
believe him, and, when the Doctor asked him my 
name, Susi was rather staggered. 

" But, during Susi's absence, the news had 
been conveyed to the Doctor that it was surely a 
white man that was coming, whose guns were 
firing and whose flag could be seen ; and the 
great Arab magnates of Ujiji— Mohammed bin 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 127 

Sali, Sayd bin Majid, Abid bin Suliman, Mo- 
hammed bin Gharib, and others— had gathered 
together before the Doctor's house, and the Doc- 
tor had come out from his veranda to discuss the 
matter and await my arrival. 

" In the meantime the head of the expedition 
had halted, and the kirangozi was out of the 
ranks, holding his flag afloat, and Selim said to 
me, 'I see the Doctor, sir. Oh, what an old 
man ! He has got a white beard.' And I — what 
would I not have given for a bit of friendly 
wilderness, where, unseen, I might vent my joy 
in some mad freak, such as idiotically biting my 
hand, turning a somersault, or slashing at trees, 
in order to allay those exciting feelings that were 
wellnigh uncontrollable. My heart beats fast, 
but I must not let my face betray my emotions, 
lest it shall detract from the dignity of a white 
man appearing under such extraordinary circum- 
stances. 

" So I did that which I thought was most 
dignified. I pushed back the crowds, and, pass- 



128 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ing from the rear, walked down a living avenue 
of people, until I came in front of the semicircle 
of Arabs, in the front of which stood the white 
man with the gray beard. As I advanced slowly 
towards him I noticed he was pale, looked 
wearied, had a gray beard, wore a bluish cap 
with a faded gold band around it, had on a red- 
sleeved waistcoat, and a pair of gray tweed trous- 
ers. I would have run to him, only I was a 
coward in the presence of such a mob — would 
have embraced him, only, he being an English- 
man, I did not know how he would receive me ; 
so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested 
was the best thing — walked deliberately to him, 
took off my hat, and said : 

" k Dr. Livingstone, I presume V 

" ■ YES,' said he, with a kind smile, lifting his 
cap slightly. 

" I replace my hat on my head, and he puts on 
his cap, and we both grasp hands, and I then say 
aloud : 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 129 

u ' I thank God, Doctor, I have been permitted 
to see you. 5 

" He answered, ' I feel thankful that I am here 
to welcome you.' 

" I turn to the Arabs, take off my hat to them 
in response to the saluting chorus " Yambos " I 
receive, and the Doctor introduced them to me by 
name. Then, oblivious of the crowds, oblivious 
of the men who shared with me my dangers, we 
— Livingstone and I — turn our faces towards his 
tembe. He points to the veranda, or, rather, 
mud platform, under the broad overhanging 
eaves ; he points to his own particular seat, 
which I see his age and experience in Africa has 
suggested, namely, a straw mat, w T ith a goat-skin 
over it, and another skin nailed against the wall 
to protect his back from contact with the cold 
mud. I protest against taking this seat, which 
so much more befits him than me, but the Doctor 
will not yield : I must take it. 

"We are seated— the Doctor and I — with our 
backs to the wall. The Arabs take seats on our 



130 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

left. More than a thousand natives are in our 
front, filling the whole square densely, indulging 
their curiosity, and discussing the fact of two 
white men meeting at Ujiji — one just come from 
Manyuema, in the west, the other from Unyan- 
yembe, in the east. 

a Conversation began. What about? I de- 
clare I have forgotten. Oh ! we mutually asked 
questions of one another, such as : 

" ' How did you come here V and ' Where 
have you been all this long time ?— the world has 
believed you to be dead.' Yes, that was the way 
it began ; but whatever the Doctor informed me, 
and that which I communicated to him, I can- 
not correctly report, for I found myself gazing at 
him, conning the wonderful man at whose side I 
now sat in Central Africa. Every hair of his 
head and beard, every wrinkle of his face, the 
wanness of his features, and the slightly wearied 
look he wore, were all imparting intelligence to 
me — the knowledge I craved for so much ever 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 131 

since I heard the words, ' Take what you want, 
but; find Livingstone.' 

"The Doctor kept his letter-bag on his knee, 
then, presently, opened it, looked at the letters 
contained there, and read one or two of his chil- 
dren's letters, his face in the meantime lighting 
up. 

"He asked me to tell him the news. 'No, 
doctor,' said I, 'read your letters first, which I 
am sure you must be impatient to read.' 

" ' Ah,' said he, 'I have waited years for a let- 
ter, and I have been taught patience. I can 
surely afford to wait a few hours longer. No, tell 
me the general news ; how is the world getting 
along V 

"Shortly I found myself enacting the part of 
an annual periodical to him. There was no need 
of exaggeration — of any penny-a-line news, or of 
any sensationalism. The world had witnessed 
and experienced much the last few years. 

"What a budget of news it was to one who 



132 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

had emerged from the depths of the primeval for- 
ests of Manyuema. 

"Not long after presents of food came in suc- 
cession, and as fast as they were brought we set 
to. I had a healthy, stubborn digestion— the 
exercise I had taken had put it in prime order; 
but Livingstone — he had been complaining that 
he had no appetite, that his stomach refused 
everything but a cup of tea now and then — he ate 
also — ate like a vigorous, hungry man ; and, as 
he vied with me in demolishing the pancakes, 
he kept repeating, ' You have brought me new 
life. You have brought me new life. 5 

" 'Oh, by George! 5 I said,. 'I have forgotten 
something. Hasten, Selim, and bring that bottle ; 
you know which ; and bring me the silver gob- 
lets. I brought this bottle on purpose for this 
event, which I hoped would come to pass, though 
often it seemed useless to expect it. 5 

"Selim knew where the bottle was, and he soon 
returned with it— a bottle of Sillery champagne ; 
and, handing the doctor a silver goblet brimful of 



THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 133 

the exhilarating wine, and pouring a small quan- 
tity into my own, I said : 

" fc Dr. Livingstone, to your very good health, 
sir.' 

" ' And to yours, 5 he responded. 

"And the champagne I had treasured for this 
happy meeting was drunk with hearty good 
wishes to each other. 

"The Doctor and I conversed upon many 
things, especially upon his own immediate troubles, 
and his disappointment upon his arrival in Ujiji, 
when told that all his goods had been sold, and he 
was reduced to poverty. He had but twenty 
cloths or so left of the stock he had deposited with 
the man called Sheriff, the half-caste drunken 
tailor, who was sent .by the British Consul in 
charge of the goods. Besides which he had been 
suffering from an attack of dysentery, and his 
condition was most deplorable. He was but little 
improved on this day, though he had eaten well, 
and already began to feel stronger and better. 
"This day, like all others, though big with hap- 



13i HENRY M. STANLEY. 

piness to me, at last was fading away. We, sit- 
ting with our faces looking to the east, as Living- 
stone had been sitting for days preceding my 
arrival, noted the dark shadows which crept up 
above the grove of palms beyond the village, and 
above the rampart of mountains which we had 
crossed that day, now looming through the fast 
approaching darkness ; and we listened, with our 
hearts full of gratitude to the great Giver of Good, 
and Dispenser of all Happiness, to the sonorous 
thunder of the surf of the Tanganika, and to the 
chorus which the night insects sang. Hours 
passed, and we were still sitting there with our 
minds busy upon the day's remarkable events, 
when I remembered that the traveler had not yet 
read his letters. 

"' Doctor, 5 I said, 'you had better read your 
letters. I will not keep you up any longer.' 

"■• Yes,' he answered, 'It is getting late ; and 
I will go and read my friends' letters. Good-night, 
and God bless you.' 




THE LIVINGSTONE QUEST. 135 



u i 



G-ood-night, my dear Doctor ; and let me 
hope that your news will be such as you desire. 5 " 

And now, dear reader, says Stanley in conclu- 
sion, having related succinctly "How I found 
Livingstone," I bid you also "' Good-night." 



136 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER III. 

THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT AND DOWN THE 

CONGO. 

On a memorable Saturday in the spring of 1874, 
an imposing funeral cortege wound its way- 
through the streets of London to the old abbey of 
Westminster, there to lay at rest the ashes of one 
more heroic soul to join the silent ranks of the 
illustrious dead already reposing in its cool 
recesses. The casket bore the simple inscription : 

" David Livingstone, 

Born at Bantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 

March 19, 1813, 

Died at Illala, Central Africa, 

May 1, 1873." 

Truly, the workers die but the work goes on ! 
After the great exertions which Stanley had 



DOWN THE CONGO. 137 

made to find Livingstone, it was only natural 
that he should watch with much interest the 
explorations of the latter in the wilds of that 
country where his own fame had been won. 
When the news came that Livingstone had 
closed his labors in death, he saw the great work 
of the Christian explorer unfinished, and the 
question came home with startling emphasis, 
"Why can I not complete the work?" Again 
and again the question arose, until he was seized 
with an anxious longing to plunge again into the 
wilds of Africa and make known to the world the 
secrets hidden there. 

After having considered the matter for some 
time, the proprietors of the New York Herald 
and the London Telegraph resolved to send him 
out. The great lake region, which included about 
six degrees of longitude, reaching from the equa- 
tor to fifteen degrees south latitude, had become 
one of the points on the African continent which 
possessed great interest to explorers and geogra- 
phers. In this vast region lived a great many 



138 HENRY M; STANLEY. 

tribes as yet unknown, while it appeared as if the 
rivers which flowed into the lakes must furnish a 
medium of communication between the African 
interior and the outside world. 

The records of the trials and triumphs of this 
second great expedition into the heart of Africa 
are told by the explorer in his Through^the Dark 
Continent. Prof. Packard, in his Stanley in 
Africa, has given us a very remarkable summary 
of the record contained in the former book, and 
to these two works the present chapter is some- 
what indebted. 

Lakes Nyassa and Tanganika had been largely 
explored, but still there was much to learn re- 
specting them ; while Victoria N'yanza, which 
was generally considered as being the source of 
the Nile, was almost entirely unknown. Not- 
withstanding the many and great efforts to find 
the source of the Nile, the question had not as yet 
been settled, and the mystery which hung about 
it only served to intensify the interest. 

" The Victoria N'yanza, therefore, was to be 



-MEDITE11RA NEAX- SEA \ 



« 



•>*<Pi>*Tari£ 



%Dcad Sea 
1; II AriSh >> 

^ e2 fa^^Mt. Hor 



^ 



itol 






T- ,. ^^eneh)^ : %VossierV 



Tropic of Cancer^ ^' 



Oasis 



VstCatai 



\> " ' ^jT^if Cataract \ !••; • 

^ ^NUBIAN : _DlESERTy^" 



Cataracjt 
m _. fte%' 



G* 



^ 



<*' 



cV 



Ahu Ahmed 
1 Suakim 



s=*; 



ft Cataract 



}:\:^: 



6th Catara£%' 
thartoum, 

mi 



llEGYPTtAN |S)OUvDAnU> 
*\ <$ iE10beid- v --3S Si 






al 



*fc 









rtXiBor \ 



iLadb 



Q?$ Kirn 



Regaf i GQndokoro 



^"^/v, Dulile^ h&JMad'i Mts. 

CO N G Owadelai/ oFaUko 
l> FRF F A/^^^Svner^et Nile 

-^>vyW/ IJJrondPgani 



.TANLEY FALLS / 



4^. 



fc Albert Edwar&A t m, f J^^^ 

C Longitude East -fo ' from (^eenwich./ 35 



[The map shows the Val- 
ley of the Nile, from source 
to mouth, according to the 
latest discoveries, and de- 
picts its true sources in the 
Victoria Nyanza and the 
Albert Edward Nyanza. The 
near approach of the Congo 
and the Nile watersheds is 
also apparent through the 
eastward trend of the Aru- 
wimi-Ituri to almost within 
sight of the Albert Ny- 
anza.] 



THE NILE FROM SOUKCE TO MOUTH. 



DOWN THE CONGO. 141 

Stanley's first objective point. He proposed to 
take a boat with him, and with this he intended 
to explore the lake which had been seen by Bur- 
ton, Speke, and Livingstone. This boat he caused 
to be made in sections, so that he could the more 
easily carry it to its destination through the 
nearly one thousand miles which lay through 
African jungles. 

" Having completed all necessary preparations, 
he left England, and toward the close of 1874, 
landed once again at Zanzibar. While here, he 
discovered that the person who had built his boat 
had made it very much heavier than he had 
ordered ; so heavy that even could it be carried 
into the interior, it must greatly retard his pro- 
gress. Happily he found a man at Zanzibar who 
could reduce its weight so that it could be carried 
along by his attendants as he had intended. 
Thus completed, he named it Lady Alice. Hav- 
ing collected a force of a little more than three 
hundred men, and obtained several powerful 
dogs, he commenced his march into the interior." 



142 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

After reaching Unyambe, instead of going 
directly west, they turned toward the north, and 
on the last day of the year 1874 reached the west- 
ern frontier of Ugogo. 

At the end of two days they came to Usanda- 
wa, a district abounding in elephants. Turning 
to the north-west, they entered the eastern border 
of Ukimbu, sometimes called Uyonzi. Stanley 
had hired guides in Ugogo, who had agreed to 
conduct him to Iramba ; but at this point they 
left him, leaving him to pursue the rest of the 
journey without a guide. " To add to his per- 
plexity, they stood upon the edge of a vast wilder- 
ness, concerning which none of them knew any- 
thing. What should he do ? Should he attempt 
to proceed, or should he go back and obtain fresh 
guides ? These were questions of no little import- 
ance to the daring adventurer. On the previous 
day, before the guides had left him, one of them 
had informed him that three days' march w^ould 
bring him to Urimi. 

"But on the following morning, the path 



DOWN THE CONGO. 143 

which they were following became so greatly 
mixed up with those pursued by the elephants 
and rhinoceros, that Stanley was at a loss as to 
which one he should take. Ordering the caravan 
to halt, he sent back some of the men to look for 
the lost path, but they soon returned having been 
unable to find it. A sad fact now presented itself 
to our hero — they were lost in the wilderness ! 
But still something must be done ; it would not 
do to remain there, and it was contrary to Stan- 
ley's nature to lie down and die without making 
a single effort to extricate himself from the trouble 
which beset him. He resolved to push on, follow- 
ing the direction pointed out by his compass. He 
therefore gave orders for the caravan to proceed, 
while he went before it with the compass. 

"But instead of getting out of the difficulty, 
they soon found that they were in it deeper than 
before. The path which they had adopted led, 
after a few hours' march, into a dense jungle of 
acacias and euphorbias, which seemed to forbid 
further progress. The only way by which they 



144 HENRY. M.. STANLEY. 

could proceed was by cutting the network of vines 
which blocked their path and crawling through 
the entrance thus made. This was slow work, 
but still the little party worked on, hoping 
in a short time to reach again the open country, 
where they could see just before them the village 
of Urimi." 

For three days they thus toiled, and at night- 
fall again encamped in the wilderness. The lack 
of food began to tell fearfully upon Stanley's men, 
so that notwithstanding all their efforts they were 
able to proceed but fourteen miles that day. 
Around them was a continuous jungle, in which 
not a drop of water was obtainable. The men 
could not long hold out against such fearful odds. 
By-and-by they began to sink under their loads, 
their pace slackened, and many of the carriers fell 
some distance behind the main body. Those 
were indeed terrible days, notwithstanding the 
exertions of Stanley to make them as pleasant as 
possible. In spite of all his efforts many of 
the men straggled far behind, and as the path 



DOWN THE CONGO. 145 

made by those in advance was very indistinct, 
they wandered from it and were lost. What 
their fate was we do not know, but most prob- 
ably their bones lie to-day bleaching in the depths 
of that wilderness in which they fell exhausted. 

On the fifth day they reached a little village 
which had been recently established. As its low 
huts greeted their vision, they rejoiced at the 
prospect of speedily obtaining food and drink ; 
but when they reached the village they were 
doomed to disappointment. The inhabitants had 
scarcely enough for their own immediate wants, 
and therefore could spare nothing to the starving 
men of Stanley's caravan. 

" Stanley's previous experience had taught 
him just how far he could urge an African car- 
rier, and in those before him he saw plainly 
written a determination not to proceed until they 
had by some means, either fair or foul, obtained 
some food. He therefore ordered them to pitch 
their tents, resolving in some way, he scarcely 
knew what, to obtain some food for them. 



146 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

When the camp was formed he selected twenty 
of his most able-bodied men, and sent them in 
search of provisions, with directions to proceed to 
the village of Suna, which lay, according to the 
report of the villagers, thirty miles distant, and 
which they said contained a large abundance of 
eatables. After the men had departed, Stanley 
took his gun and went in search of game himself. 
The country had appeared before to abound in 
game, but now he could find nothing to shoot. 
He was about to return, when one of the men 
who had accompanied him discovered a lion's den 
in which they found two cubs. These Stanley at 
once took, and having skinned them brought 
them to camp. When he reached the camp and 
beheld his followers who had so faithfully 
followed him, and seeing their faces so pinched 
and wan, he was deeply moved, and but for add- 
ing to their depressed feelings, he would have 
wept. It was true that he had two small cubs, 
but what were those among so large a number? 
If cooked in the ordinary way there would be 



DOWN THE CONGO. 147 

scarcely a mouthful for each man. What should 
he do ? At last he decided that if he could only 
make a soup of them, there would be at least a 
bowl full for each man. But even if he could 
thus provide for them, where could he obtain a 
kettle large enough to make a soup for so large a 
number of men ? As he pondered the matter he 
chanced to think of a large sheet iron trunk 
which was among his baggage, and which he 
knew was water-tight. Quickly turning out its 
contents he filled it with water — for that article 
was easily obtained — and placed it over the fire 
which one of the soldiers had made. He then 
proceeded to his medical stores, and having taken 
out five pounds of Scotch oatmeal and three 
packages of Revalenta Arabica, each containing 
one pound, he placed the whole in the trunk with 
the lions, and made that vessel full of broth, of 
which there was enough for each man to have a 
good bowl full. Stanley says that it was a rare 
scene to behold those half-starved men gather 
around that trunk, and place upon the fire fresh 



US HENRY M. STANLEY. 

fuel, endeavoring in every possible way to hasten 
the soup to boil, while they stood around with 
gourds in their hands, filled with water, which 
they stood ready to empty into the trunk, should 
its contents attempt to boil over, in which case they 
would lose a little of the food which now pos- 
sessed great value to them. Eare as the sight 
was, he adds, ' It was a rarer sight still to watch 
the famished wretches, as, with these same 
gourds full of precious broth, they drank it down 
as only starving men could. The weak and sick 
got a larger portion, and another tin of oatmeal 
being opened for their supper and breakfast, they 
waited patiently the return of those who had 
gone in quest of food.' " 

But would those messengers who were sent for 
food return? Would they ever reach the place 
where it was reported that provisions were to be 
obtained in abundance ? 

At last the messengers came in sight, and the 
nearly starved men saw that they were laden 



DOWN THE CONGO. 149 

with large quantities of food. Then from that 
camp arose a joyful shout. 

" Like ravening wolves the men fell upon the 
provisions, and sought to satisfy the cravings of 
their appetites. When they learned that there 
was indeed an abundance in the village from 
which the men had come, they forgot their weak- 
ness and begged Stanley to break camp and 
hasten thither that very day. This he was quite 
willing to do, for. he longed to get out of the 
jungle which possessed such painful associations. 
He therefore cheerfully complied with the wishes 
of his men, and ordered everything to be got in 
readiness to move forward. On the following 
day they resumed their march, and having made 
a steady march for twenty miles, reached the 
district of Suna, in Urimi. 

" Stanley was not a little surprised at beholding 
the phase of African life which presented itself to 
his gaze. Both men and women possessed great 
beauty and rare physical proportions, while all 



150 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

stood before him in a state of perfect nudity. 
There appeared to be no chief, but were controlled 
in their movements by the old men, whose lon- 
gevity seemed to them to denote wisdom. With 
these wiseacres Stanley was forced to treat for 
permission to pass through the territory. This 
was no easy matter, since many men are more 
difficult to arrange terms with than one, whose 
word was supreme authority, would be. But 
after much talk the permission was granted, and 
food was also supplied to the hungry men." 

A few marches farther on young Edward 
Pococke died, and was buried in the wilderness. 
This cast a gloom over the camp, concerning 
w T hich Stanley says : ' ' We had just finished the 
four hundredth mile of our march from the sea, 
and had reached the base of the water-shed where 
the trickling streams and infant waters begin to 
flow Nile ward, when this noble young man died." 
They buried him at night at the foot of an acacia, 
Stanley reading the burial service of the Church 
of England over the body. At a later period, 



DOWN THE CONGO. 151 

when they had reached the head-waters of the 
Nile, Stanley addressed the following tender letter 
to the bereaved father : 

" Kagehyi, on the Victoria N'yanza. 

" March Uh 3 1875. 
" Dear Sir : 

"A most unpleasant, because sad, task de- 
volves upon me, for I have the misfortune to 
have to report to you the death of your son 
Edward, of typhoid fever. His service with me 
was brief, but it was long enough for me to know 
the greatness of your loss, for I doubt that few 
fathers can boast of such sons as yours. Both 
Frank and Ted proved themselves sterling men, 
noble and brave hearts, and faithful servants. 
Ted had endeared himself to the members of the 
expedition by his amiable nature, his cheerfulness, 
and by various qualifications winch brought him 
into high favor with the native soldiers of this 
force. Before daybreak we were accustomed to 
hear the cheery notes of his bugle, which woke 



152 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

us to a fresh day's labor ; at night, around the 
camp-fires, we were charmed with his sweet, sim- 
ple songs, of which he had an inexhaustible 
repertoire. When tired also with marching, it 
was his task to announce to the tired people the 
arrival of the vanguard at camp, so that he had 
become quite a treasure to us all ; and, I must say, 
I have never known men who could bear what 
your sons have borne on this expedition so 
patiently and uncomplainingly. I never heard 
one grumble either from Frank or Ted ; have 
never heard them utter an illiberal remark, or 
express any wish that the expedition had never 
set foot in Africa, as many men would have done 
in their situation, so that you may well imagine, 
that if the loss of one of your sons causes grief to 
your paternal heart, it has been no less a grief to 
us, as we were all, as it were, one family, sur- 
rounded as we are by so much that is dark and 
forbidding. 

"On arriving at Suna, in Urimi, Ted came to 
me, after a very long march, complaining of pain 



DOWN THE CONGO. 153 

in his limbs and loins. I did not think it was 
serious at all, nor anything uncommon after 
walking twenty miles, but told him to go and lie 
down, that he would be better on the morrow, as 
it was very likely fatigue. The next morning I 
visited him, and he again complained of pains in 
the knees and back, at which I ascribed it to rheu- 
matism, and treated him accordingly. The third 
day he complained of pain in the chest, difficulty 
of breathing and sleeplessness, from which I per- 
ceived he was suffering from some other malady 
than rheumatism, but what it could be I could 
not divine. He was a little feverish, so I gave 
him a mustard plaster and some aperient medi- 
cine. Toward night he began to wander in his 
head, and on examining his tongue I found it was 
almost black and coated with dark-gray fur. At 
these symptoms I thought he had a severe attack 
of remittent fever, from which I suffered at Ujiji, 
in 1871, and therefore I watched for an opportu- 
nity to administer quinine — that is, when the 
fever should abate a little. But on the fourth 



154 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

day, the patient still wandering in his mind, I 
suggested to Frank that he should sponge him with 
cold water and change his clothing, during which 
operation I noticed that the chest of the patient 
was covered with spots like pimples or small-pox 
pustules, which perplexed me greatly. He could 
not have caught the small-pox, and what the dis- 
ease was I could not imagine ; but, turning to my 
medical books, I saw that your son was suffering 
from typhoid, the description of which was too 
clear to be longer mistaken, and both Frank and 
I devoted our attention to him. He was nour- 
ished with arrow-root and brandy, and everything 
that was in our power to do was done ; but it was 
very evident that the case was serious, though I 
hoped that his constitution would brave it out. 

" On the fifth day we were compelled to resume 
our journey, after a rest of four days. Ted was 
put in a hammock and carried on the shoulders of 
four men. At ten o'clock on the 17th of January, 
we halted at Chiwyn, and the minute that he was 



DOWN THE CONGO. 155 

laid down in the camp he breathed his last. Our 
companion was dead. 

"We buried him that night under a tree, on 
which his brother Frank had cut a deep cross, and 
read the beautiful service of the Church of Eng- 
land over him as we laid the poor, worn-out body 
in its final resting-place. 

"Peace to his ashes. Poor Ted deserved a 
better fate than dying in Africa, but it w T as im- 
possible that he could have died easier. I wish 
that my end may be as peaceful and painless as 
his. He was spared the stormy scenes we went 
through afterwards in our war with the Waturn ; 
and who knows how much he has been saved 
from ? But I know that he would have rejoiced 
to be with us at this hour of our triumph, gazing 
on the laughing waters of the vast fountain of 
old Nile. None of us would have been more 
elated at the prospect before us than he, for he 
was a true sailor, and loved the sight of water. 
Yet again I say peace be to his ashes ; be consoled, 
for Frank still lives, and, from present appear- 



156 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ances, is likely to come home to you with honor 
and glory, such as he and you may well be 
proud of. 

" Believe me, dear sir, with true sincerity, your 
well-wisher, 

" Henry M. Stanley." 

As he continued in a north-westerly direction, 
Stanley became more and more convinced that 
the little stream which he saw, flowed into the 
Nile, and he pushed on, confident that ere long 
he would stand upon the shores of the Victoria 
N'yanza, which was reached at last. Stanley and 
his followers had endured much in order to reach 
it, but that was now a thing of the past, and the 
painful recollections of the march were forgotten 
in the joy which they felt as they stood upon the 
margin of the lake and viewed the broad expanse 
of water before them. As for Stanley, he felt as 
though he had won a great victory. 

Never had the boat of a white man floated upon 
the calm and placid water of the lake. All that 



DOWN THE CONGO. 157 

had been said concerning it was mere conjecture. 
Even Baker, whose description of the Albert 
Lake furnished a valuable addition to our geo- 
graphical knowledge, could only say it is reported 
by the natives thus and so, while by actual 
observation he knew nothing. 

Stanley longed to launch the Lady Alice, 
that he might solve the problem which had so 
long defied solution. 

It was on the 28th of February, 1875, that they 
had reached the borders of the lake, and at the end 
of eight days they were ready to explore the lake 
and the adjoining region. Having launched the 
Lady Alice, he selected ten of the best oarsmen 
belonging to his party, and these, with himself 
and steersman, constituted the boat's crew, and 
with these he set out, determined to overcome 
whatever obstacles might lie in his path. 

Sailing along the irregular coast on the eastern 
side of the gulf, they passed a section of the 
country possessing a greatly diversified appear- 
ance. Along their route they saw many villages, 



158 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

whose inhabitants fled at his approach, startled at 
the sight of a white man. 

Pursuing their journey they at length came in 
sight of the high promontory of Majita, which 
rises nearly three thousand feet above the level of 
the lake, and around which is a low, brown plain, 
which, viewed from a distance, has the appearance 
of a broad sheet of water. It was doubtless this 
that Speke saw, which led him to suppose that 
the promontory was an island. 

The next point of importance reached by the 
travelers was the coast of the Uriri district, 
whose fertile lands were dotted by fine herds of 
cattle. Continuing their journey in a northerly 
direction, he says : " We passed between the 
island Ugingo and the gigantic mountains of 
Ugegeya, at whose base the Lady Alice seems to 
crawl like a mite in a huge cheese, while we on 
board admire the stupendous height and wonder 
at the deathly silence which prevails in this soli- 
tude, where the boisterous winds are hushed and 
the turbulent waves are as tranquil as a summer 



DOWN THE CONGO. 159 

dream. The natives as they pass regard this 
spot with superstition, as well they might, for 
the silent majesty of these dumb, tall mounts 
awe the very storms to peace. Let the tempests 
bluster as they may on the spacious main beyond 
the cape, in* this nook, sheltered by tall Ugingo 
isle and lofty Goshi in the mainland, they inspire 
no fear. It is this refuge which Goshi promises 
the distressed canoemen that causes them to sing 
praises to Goshi, and to cheer one another, when 
wearied and benighted, that Goshi is near to pro- 
tect them." 

Still sailing among the clustered islands, they 
came at length to two islets which stood apart 
from the rest, where they formed their camp for 
the night. " There," says Stanley, u under the 
overspreading branches of a mangrove tree, we 
dream of unquiet waters, and angry surfs, and 
threatening rocks, to find ourselves next morning 
tied to an island, which from its peculiarity, I 
called Bridge Island. While seeking a road to 
ascend the island to take bearings, I discovered a 



160 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

natural bridge of basalt, about twenty feet in 
length and twelve in breadth, under which one 
might repose comfortably, and from one side see 
the waves lashed to fury and spend their strength 
on the stubborn rocks which form the foundation 
of the arch, while from the other we could see the 
boat, secure under the lee of the island, resting 
on a serene and placid surface and shaded by 
mangrove branches from the hot sun of the equa- 
tor. Its neighborhood is remarkable only for a 
small cave, the haunt of fishermen. 

After having carefully surveyed the mainland 
near the islands, Stanley again set sail, and at 
noon found, by observation, that he was directly 
under the equator. Seeing before him an open- 
ing in the lake, which appeared at a distance like 
the mouth of a river, he sailed into it, and found 
that it was a bay. Upon the margin of this bay 
was situated a village, which he approached and 
endeavored to make peace with the inhabitants. 
But the latter only " stared at them from under 
pent-houses of hair, and hastily stole away to tell 



DOWN THE CONGO. 161 

their families of the strange apparition they had 
seen." 

Leaving the bay, they continued their voyage 
of exploration, examining the streams which led 
to the Victoria Lake. But on the following day, 
having at last fairly entered the lake, Stanley 
began his explorations of it, and "surveyed its 
southern, eastern and northeastern shores. He 
made thorough w T ork of it, entering every little 
indenture ; and examined every nook which he 
saw. The knowledge which he thus obtained 
w T as very valuable, for all the knowledge which 
men possessed concerning the lake was based 
upon a map made by Speke, and he had depended 
upon such information as the natives had 
imparted for his knowledge. Stanley corrected 
the map of Speke, and established the situation 
of the lake in a position different from that 
claimed by his illustrious predecessor. While 
upon the spot he took such notes as would enable 
him to make out a correct map of the lake and 
its surroundings, so that it could be easily found. 



162 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

During his examination of the Victoria, he took 
thirty-seven observation, and found the extreme 
end of the lake to be 34° 35' east longitude, and 
33' 43" north latitude. 

"The travelers soon came to the point where 
the waters of the lake pass over the Eipon Falls 
and enter the Nile, which many miles farther on 
fertilizes the land of Egypt. Beyond this they 
came to the island of Krina. Here Stanley suc- 
ceeded in obtaining guides, who agreed to con- 
duct him to King Mtesa, who ruled over the 
whole adjoining region. Having sent messengers 
in advance to inform the king of their coming, 
Stanley continued to coast along the shore, past 
the land of the Uganda. The natives treated 
them with kindness, so far as words were con- 
cerned, but did not furnish them with provisions. 
While thus pursuing his journey, Stanley noticed 
a curious fact. He discovered an inlet where 
there appeared to be a tide which rose and fell at 
stated intervals. He inquired of the natives if 
this was an ordinary event, and they replied that 



DOWN THE CONGO. 1(53 

it was, and afterwards told him that the same 
was true of all the inlets which indented the 
coast. When they arrived at Beya, they were 
met by a large number of canoes which had been 
sent out by the king to conduct them to him. 

" Escorted by the envoys of the king, Stanley 
landed upon the 4th of April, while the natives 
waved their flags, discharged their muskets, and 
shouted and yelled in the ecstasy of delight at his 
arrival. He was promptly conducted to quarters 
which had been prepared for him, where he had 
hardly established himself, than there appeared 
several of the natives bearing large quantities of 
bananas, sweet potatoes, plantains, chickens, 
milk, rice, butter, together with sixteen goats, ten 
oxen, etc., etc. 

"In the afternoon following his arrival, the 
king sent word to him that he was ready to 
receive the stranger. Leaving the quarters to 
w r hich he had been assigned, Stanley entered a 
street eighty feet wide and half-a-mile in length. 
Upon either side of this street stood large num- 



164 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

bers of the inhabitants, many of whom were the 
personal guard, officers, attendants, and retinue 
of the king. Glancing to the opposite end of the 
avenue upon which he had entered, he could see 
the residence of Mtesa, while in the doorway 
sat the king himself. As our hero advanced the 
natives kept up a horrible noise, discharging mus- 
kets and beating sixteen drums. When the 
house was reached, the king arose and stretched 
out' his hand without uttering a word. For 
several minutes they regarded each other in 
silence, and then the king resumed his seat and 
bade Stanley be seated also. He did so ; and one 
hundred of the king's chief captains did the same. 
The silence which followed gave Stanley a chance 
to glance at the king's person and to see what 
manner of man he was. He describes him as 
being tall and slim, yet possessing broad and 
powerful shoulders. His eyes were large, and his 
nose and mouth were far different from those of 
the African race in general, while his face pos- 
sessed an appearance both intelligent and amiable. 



DOWN THE CONGO. 165 

He was dressed after the manner of the Arabs. 
In his conversation he was courteous and affable, 
greatly superior, says Stanley, to the sultan of 
Zanzibar, and left an impression on your mind 
that he was a colored gentleman, whose planners 
had been refined and polished by his association 
with civilized, cultivated men, so that you would 
forget, for the time being, that he was what he 
was — a native of Central Africa, and had seen but 
three white men in the course of his whole life." 

Stanley had already been away from his camp 
some time, and he began to deem it important to 
return. During the time he had remained in the 
village of Mtesa, he was kindly entertained, and 
the best of everything that the kingdom contained 
was at his disposal. But lie had other work to 
perform, and he felt as though he must be " up 
and doing." 

Under the escort of two canoes, belonging to 
Mtesa, he left the shore and sailed out again into 
the lake. After innumerable perils from savages, 
tempest, and threatened starvation, at about 



166 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

three o'clock one morning -.' they entered Speke's 
Gulf, from which they had sailed nearly two 
months previous. The wind soon died away and 
they were becalmed in the middle of the lake. 
The experience of the past had taught them but 
too well the meaning of this sudden calm. It 
w r as the precursor of a coming storm. Soon the 
fearful scenes, through w r hich they had passed 
twice before, were re-enacted, and amid the fury 
of the storm and weaves, the boat became unman- 
ageable, and was hurried along at the mercy of 
the wind and water. But they passed through 
the storm in safety, which in the morning again 
died away. Notwithstanding they were almost 
under the equator, the morning dawned gray, 
cheerless ~and raw. In order to learn his exact 
situation, Stanley took an observation, and found 
that they were only about twenty miles from his 
camp, which lay in a south-easterly direction. 
This information seemed to impart new life to 
his comrades, and they at once made every effort 
to reach that point. They ran the sails up, and 



DOWN THE CONGO. 167 

as if good fortune had indeed come to them at 
last, the wind, which had been unfavorable, 
shifted, and filled the sail, and they went bound- 
ing over the water, straight for the camp, where 
many hearts were anxious concerning them. 

" Those in camp saw the boat when it seemed 
to be only a speck on the horizon, but as it drew 
nearer and they saw that it was indeed the Lady 
Alice, they hurried to the water's edge, where 
they shouted and danced with joy. Nearer and 
nearer came the boat, and then the shouts gave 
place to volleys of musketry and the waving of 
flags, while it might truly be said that ' the land 
seemed alive with leaping forms of glad-hearted 
men.' 

"At last the boat touched the pebbly shore, and 
then fifty men rushed into the water and lifting 
Stanley from the boat, bore him on their should- 
ers to the camp, where in their joy they danced 
around him like persons bereft of their senses. 
They had been told by some of the natives that 
their leader was dead, and his long absence 



16S HEISRY M. STANLEY. 

seemed to confirm the report. In view of these 
facts they saw no course left them to pursue but 
to turn back. But while they were considering 
how they might best do this, Stanley returned." 

The next few days were devoted to the rest and 
repose w T hich the weary explorers so much 
needed. How sweet and delightful this was to 
them can be best learned from his own words : 

u Sweet is the Sabbath-day to the toil-worn 
laborer, happy is the long sea-tossed mariner on 
his arrival in port, and sweet were the days of 
calm rest we enjoyed after our troubleous explor- 
ation of the N'yanza. The brusque storms, the 
continued rains, the cheerless gray clouds, the 
wild waves, the loneliness of the islands, the 
inhospitality of the natives that were like mere 
phases of a dream, were now but the reminiscen- 
ces of the memory, so little did we heed what 
was past while enjoying the luxury of a rest from 
our toils. Still it added to our pleasure to be able 
to conjure up in the mind the varied incidents of 
the long lake journey ; they served to enliven 



DOWN THE CONGO. 169 

and employ the mind while the body enjoyed 
repose, like condiments quickening digestion. It 
was a pleasure to be able to map at will, in the 
mind, so many countries newly-discovered, such 
a noble extent of fresh water explored for the 
first time. As the memory flew over the lengthy 
track of exploration, how fondly it dwelt on the 
many picturesque bays, margined by water-lilies 
and lotus plants, or by the green walls of the 
slender, reed -like papyrus, inclosing an area of 
water, whose face was as calm as a mirror, 
because lofty mountain ridges almost surround it. 
With what kindly recognition it roved over the 
little green island in whose snug haven our boat 
had lain securely at anchor, when the rude temp- 
est without churned the face of the N'yanza into 
a foaming sheet." 

In reviewing the result of the journey, Stan- 
ley found that during his journey of two hundred 
and twenty miles, he had lost six men by drown- 
ing, five guns, and one case of ammunition. In 
addition to these, ten canoes had been wrecked, 



170 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and three out of four of his donkeys had died. 
Having passed over a large portion of the distance 
two and in some cases three times, he had really 
traveled over seven hundred miles during the 
fifty-two days which had passed since they had 
left the margin of Speke's Gulf. 

Having fairly rested themselves, Stanley 
resolved to visit Mtesa and solicit aid in reaching 
the Albert lake. Baker had previously visited the 
lake, but his explorations had been very imper- 
fect, for reasons which have been previously 
stated. Concerning the region which lay between 
the Victoria and Albert lakes very little was 
known, and concerning which many strange tales 
were told. The distance across this territory in a 
straight line was about two hundred miles ; but 
of its exact size nothing was definitely known. 
During the previous year Colonel Mason had 
attempted to explore it, and had made a map of 
the whole region, but the latter proved to be very 
incorrect, so that Stanley had to lay it aside as 
useless. 



DOWN THE CONGO. 171 

Stanley's computation of the size of Victoria 
N'yanza (the native name is Lake Ukerewe) 
showed it to contain twenty -one thousand five 
hundred square miles, and that it lay at a point 
nine thousand one hundred and sixty-eight feet 
above the level of the sea. Directly west of this 
lake is a second, whose name Stanley was told was 
Mwutan Nzigi, concerning which his informants 
could tell him but little save that its shores 
abounded in cannibals. This lake he afterwards 
proved to be none other than the Albert N'yanza. 

When Stanley approached the capital of 
Mtesa, he was disappointed to learn that that per- 
son was at war with the Wavuma, who had re- 
fused to pay their accustomed annual tribute. In 
this war Mtesa had an army which numbered 
about a quarter of a million soldiers. During the 
many weeks of his absence Stanley assisted a 
young educated Arab to translate a part of the 
Bible, so that the king could have a portion of the 
Scriptures to read when he returned. Stanley 
states that he saw several naval engagements 



172 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

between the two warlike forces. In one of these 
he describes " the Wavuma dashing upon the 
Waganda fleet (nearly eight hundred canoes en- 
gaged in action) with a hate approaching the sub- 
lime. The island is situated midway in the chan- 
nel separating Uvuma from Uganda. Of course 
a great many unfortunates were lost in this war, 
as in other wars. I finally stopped it, that I 
might prosecute my researches on Lake Albert, 
by a stratagem which brought peace to Uvuma, 
honor and glory to the WagancKf, and aid to 
myself." 

The war over, Stanley had an opportunity to 
consult with Mtesa. He expresses himself as 
being greatly pleased with the king and his 
household, which pleasure was strengthened each 
day of his visit. The fact which pleased him the 
most was the gentleness and the politeness which 
he saw displayed. He thus describes the house- 
hold of the king : 

"If beautiful women of sable complexion are 
to be found in Africa, it must, I thought, be in 



DOWN THE CONGO. 173 

the household of such a powerful despot as Mtesa, 
who has the pick of the flower of so many lands. 
Accordingly, I looked sharply amongst the con- 
cubines that I might become acquainted with the 
style of pure African beauty. Nor was I quite 
disappointed, though I had imagined that his 
wives would have all been of superior personal 
charms. But Mtesa apparently differs widely 
from Europeans in his tastes. There were not 
more than twenty out of all the five hundred that 
were worthy of a glance of admiration from a 
white man with any eye for style and beauty, 
and certainly not more than three deserving of 
many glances. These three, the most comely 
among the twenty beauties of Mtesa's court, were 
of the Wahuma race, no doubt from Ankori. 
They had the complexion of quadroons, were 
straight-nosed and thin-lipped, with large, lus- 
trous eyes. In the other graces of a beautiful 
form they excelled, and Hafiz might have said 
with poetic rapture that they were ' straight as 
palm trees and beautiful as moons.' The only 



174 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

drawback was their hair— the short, crisp hair of 
the negro race — but in all other points they might 
be exhibited as the perfection of beauty which 
Central Africa can produce. Mtesa, however, 
does not believe them to be superior or even equal 
to his well fleshed, unctuous-bodied, flat-nosed 
wives ; indeed, when I pointed them out to him 
one day at a private audience, he even regarded 
them with a sneer." 

It was now October, and Stanley began to turn 
his attention to the work before him. With a 
large force at his command, Stanley bade farewell 
to Mtesa, and amid the sound of drums and 
horns, and the waving of both English and 
American flags, the expedition started for the 
shores of the Albert N'yanza. 

Taking a north-westerly direction they soon 
passed through Uganda, and reached the borders 
of Unyoro, where they halted and made prepara- 
tions for the fighting which was certain to follow 
an attempt to proceed. Stanley describes the 
country of Unyoro as extending along the whole 



DOWN THE CONGO. 175 

shore of the Albert Lake. That which lies upon 
the southern shore is called Ruanda ; its western 
*shore bears the name of Ukonju, and is inhabited 
by cannibals ; and its extreme north-western shore 
was called Ulegga. 

Entering the kagera, the "main feeder-' of the 
Victoria lake, Stanley discovered the lake to 
which Speke had given the name of Windermere. 
This he explored, and passing still farther up the 
stream, he came to a second lake, which was 
some nine miles in length and six in width. 
Beyond this he found a third, smaller than either 
of the others, being only a mile long. Having 
ascended an eminence near by, he found that the 
lakes and the river formed parts of one great 
lake, a portion of whose surface was covered with 
a mass of vegetation similar to that which ob- 
structed Baker's path when he endeavored to 
ascend the Nile. This partially concealed lake he 
estimated to be about eighty miles long and four- 
teen wide. An examination of the region revealed 



176 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the fact that there were seventeen small lakes, 
which were " parts of one stupendous whole." 

As a result of this journey of exploration, 
Stanley declares that he was thus able to discover 
the true source of the Nile. Continuing his 
journey southward, he reached Ujiji. While 
upon the borders of the Victoria Lake, Stanley 
wrote the following letter to a friend, which 
furnishes a clear view, of camp-life in the Afri- 
can interior : 

" Kagehyi is a straggling village of cane huts, 
twenty or thirty in number, which are built 
somewhat in the form of a circle, hedged around 
by a fence of thorns twisted between upright 
stakes. Sketch such a village in your imagina- 
tion, and let the center of it be dotted here and 
there with the forms of kidlings who prank it 
with the vivacity of kidlings under a hot, glowing- 
sun. Let a couple of warriors and a few round - 
bellied children be seen among them, and near a 
tall hut, which is a chief's, plant a taller tree, 
under whose shade sit a few elders in council 



DOWN THE CONGO. 177 

with their chief ; so much for the village. Now 
outside the village, yet touching the fence, begin 
to draw the form of a square camp, about fifty 
yards square, each side flanked with low, square 
huts, under the eaves of which plant as many 
figures of men as you please, for we have many, 
and you have the camp of the exploring expedi- 
tion, commanded by your friend and humble 
servant. From the center of the camp you may 
see Lake Victoria, or that portion of it I have 
called Speke Gulf, and twenty five miles distant 
you may see table topped Magita, the large island 
of Ukerewe ; and. toward the north-west a clear 
horizon, with nothing between water and sky to 
mar its level. The surface of the lake, which 
approaches to within a few yards of the camp, is 
much ruffled just at present with a north-west 
breeze, and though the sun is glowing hot, under 
the shade it is agreeable enough, so that nobody 
perspires or is troubled with the heat. You must 
understand there is a vast difference between 
New York and Central Africa heat. Yours is a 



178 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

sweltering heat, begetting langour and thirst — 
ours is a dry heat, permitting activity and action 
without thirst or perspiration. If we exposed 
ourselves to the sun, we should feel quite as 
though we were being baked. Come with me to 
my lodgings, now. I lodge in a hut little inferior 
in size to the chief's. In it is stored the luggage 
of the expedition, which fills one half. It is 
about six tons in weight, and consists of cloth, 
beads, wire, shells, ammunition, powder, barrels, 
portmanteaus, iron trunks, photographic appara- 
tus, scientific instruments, pontoons, sections of 
boat, etc., etc. The other half of the hut is my 
sleeping, dining and hall -room. It is dark as 
pitch within, for light cannot penetrate the mud 
with which the wood-work is liberally daubed. 
The floor is of dried mud, thickly covered with 
dust, which breeds fleas and other vermin to be 
a plague to me and my poor dogs. 

"I have four youthful Mercuries, of ebon color, 
attending me, who, on the march, carry my per- 
sonal weapons of defense. I do not need so many 



DOWN THE CONGO. 179 

persons to wait on me, but such is their pleasure. 
They find their reward in the liberal leavings of 
the table. If I have a goat killed for European 
men, half of it suffices for two days for us. 
When it becomes slightly tainted, my Mercuries 
will beg for it, and devour it at a single sitting. 
Just outside of the door of my hut are about two 
dozen of my men sitting squatted in a circle and 
stringing beads. A necklace of beads is each 
man's daily sum wherewith to buy food. I have 
now a little over one hundred and sixty men. 
Imagine one hundred and sixty necklaces given 
each day for the last three months — in the aggre- 
gate the sum amounts to fourteen thousand neck- 
laces ; in a year to fifty-eight thousand four hun- 
dred. A necklace of ordinary beads is cheap 
enough in the States, but the expense of carriage 
makes a necklace here equal to about twenty- five 
cents in value. For a necklace I can buy a 
chicken, or a peck of sweet potatoes, or half-a- 
peck of grain. 

"I left the coast with about forty thousand 



180 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

yards of cloth, which, in the United States, would 
be worth about twelve and a-half cents a yard, 
or altogether about five thousand dollars ; the 
expense of portage as far as this lake, makes 
each yard worth about fifty cents. Two yards of 
cloth will purchase a goat or sheep ; thirty will 
purchase an ox ; fifteen are enough to purchase 
rations for the entire caravan. These are a few 
of the particulars of our domestic affairs. The 
expedition is divided into eight squads of twenty 
men each, with an experienced man over each 
squad. They are all armed with Snider percus 
sion lock muskets. A dozen or so of the most 
faithful have a brace of revolvers in addition to 
their other arms." 

As Stanley descended the slopes leading to 
Ujiji, and saw the huts of the village rising just 
before him, he remembered with pleasure the first 
time he had visited the place. " He seemed to live 
over again those hours and days during the few 
minutes which elapsed from his first seeing it and 
reaching the village. He remembered how glad 



DOWN THE CONGO. 181 

the sight of Ujiji had been to him when search- 
ing for Livingstone. It was then the end of his 
journey. Livingstone was there, and he had 
found him. But now Livingstone ' was not, for 
God took him,' and Stanley had left the comforts 
of home to complete the work which the explorer 
had been unable to do, and it must be many 
weary months before it would be completed." 

Glancing to the right, he saw the beautiful 
Tanganika as it lay half-hidden among the hills, 
and could see the cattle as they came down to the 
water's edge to drink. At last the village was 
reached, and Stanley and his weary companions 
gave themselves up to the enjoyment of that rest 
which they needed. Making his home in the 
village, he proposed, if possible, to lift the curtain 
of mystery which hung around Tanganika. 

There was certainly a deal of mystery connected 
with the lake, and Stanley resolved to unravel it, 
and set out on the 11th of June upon his tour of 
exploration. As he proceeded, Stanley found 
additional proofs of the steady rise of the lake, 



182 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and the question very naturally arose in his mind, 
"If Tanganika has an outlet, why does it continue 
to rise ? why do not its waters pass off by means 
of this outlet V And this continual rise seemed 
to shake his idea of there being an outlet to the 
lake. After a time, they came to the Lukuga 
river, where the natives gave conflicting accounts 
concerning the river, as to whether it sustained 
the position of an outlet or that of an inlet to the 
lake. One of the natives most earnestly declared 
that its waters flowed both ways. The spot 
where two years before Cameron had pitched 
his tent, was now covered with water. As Cam- 
eron reached what he believed to be the outlet of 
Tanganika, he says that the entrance of the 
stream was something more than a mile wide, 
but was closed up by a grass sandbank, with the 
exception of a channel three or four hundred 
yards wide. Across this there is a rill where the 
surf breaks heavily, although there is more than 
a fathom of water at its most shallow part. 

" Carefully examining the river, Stanley found 



DOWN THE CONGO. 183 

that it was an affluent instead of an outlet of the 
lake. If such was indeed the case, why had 
Cameron declared that it flowed from, instead of 
into the lake ? Upon what had he based his con- 
clusions ? And then one of the inhabitants had 
stated that at different times the stream flowed 
in different directions — why was this ? There 
seemed to be strange contradiction here, and well 
might the reader inquire : ' Who was right V 
We reply, - Stanley.' He declares that no such 
outlet exists, and that the Taliganika is a great 
inland sea with waters flowing into it, but none 
flowing out. He did find, however, a small 
stream flowing westward from the lake, but it 
was nothing but a mere brook and could not be 
termed an outlet of a lake whose length was 
nearly twice that of Lake Ontario. Stanley gives 
it as his opinion, that at some time in the past the 
bed of the river had been raised to a higher level, 
and that the land was subsequently sunk by some 
convulsive throe of nature, in which the Lukuga 
had been taken with it, and forming a dam at its 



184 HENRY M. STANLEY. ' 

mouth, which explains the cause of the steady- 
rise of the river. 

"When Stanley returned to Ujiji, he found 
that the small-pox had broken out in his camp, 
and that the Arabs were filled with dismay on 
account of it. This w r as an unlooked-for event, 
as he thought that he had taken all necessary pre- 
cautions before starting to guard against this ter- 
rible disease, since he had vaccinated, as he sup- 
posed, every member of his party. He had been 
able to pass from, the sea to the Victoria Lake 
without losing a single man by it, but now, 
having reached Ujiji, it entered his camp, and in 
a few days bore aw^ay eight victims. The appear- 
ance of this fearful disease created a panic among 
the men, w^ho began to desert in such large num- 
bers that Stanley saw that he soon would be left 
alone. 

"Among the very last persons that Stanley 
expected would desert him, was Kaiulu, the negro 
boy whom he had purchased at Unyanyembe 
when searching for Livingstone. He had become 



DOWN THE CONGO. 185 

strongly attached to him, and when he returned, 
after accomplishing the object of his mission, he 
took Kalulu home with him, and afterwards had 
placed him at school in England for eighteen 
months. And now- he had forsaken him. Cer- 
tainly Stanley might think that if he could not be 
trusted, there was none among his men who could 
be. Meanwhile desertions continued, and he 
sent Pococke (brother of the one who died), 
and a faithful chief, together with a squad 
of men, to hunt up the deserters and bring 
them back to camp. Returning to Ujiji, the 
scouts found six of the men, whom they secured 
after a short fight, and returned to Stanley. 
Soon after, Kalulu was found on a neighboring 
island and brought in. 

" Stanley now determined to push on to the 
Lualaba, and after exploring the country through 
which he must pass in order to reach it, to follow 
its course to the sea. Livingstone desired to do 
this, but had been denied the privilege ; Cameron 
also had wished to explore it, but had been refused 



186 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

permission to proceed, and now Stanley, the last 
of all, resolved to undertake the task, with the 
determination to succeed. Turning his back upon 
the main portion of the equatorial lake region, he 
set out for the Lualabe." 

During Stanley's march to Manyuema, there 
occurred very little of importance. Passing over 
nearly the same ground which had been trodden 
by Livingstone, he entered the borders of this 
strange country on the 5th of October. " Know- 
ing that the missionary had once spent several 
months in this district, Stanley resolved to halt 
here for a few days. The natives are represented 
as being a very peculiar people, and their weapons 
are described as being excellent. Among other 
things, Stanley's attention w^as directed to one 
peculiar custom ; the men wore lumps of mud, 
variously shaped, upon their bodies, and also daubs 
of it upon their hair and beard. The women 
wove their front-hair into head-dresses, which 
somewhat resemble bonnets, while their back- 
hair fell in beautiful ringlets over their shoulders. 



DOWN THE CONGO. 187 

Their villages had one or more wide streets run- 
ning through the centre of them, which were 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 
wide, upon either side of which square huts were 
ranged, each furnished with well-beaten, cleanly- 
kept clay floors, and to which they cordially in- 
vited the travelers. 

" Stanley reached a village situated on the 
banks of the Luma, on the 12th of October. It 
was at this point that both Livingstone and Cam- 
eron had left the river, and going directly west, 
had proceeded to Nyangwe. Our hero proposed 
to pursue a different route. He intended to follow 
this stream until it joined the Lualaba, and then 
proceed by the latter stream to the same place. 
On his way down the river, he found the inhabi- 
tants very kind, and possessing many curious 
traditions and customs. Eeaching the Lualaba, 
they passed down that river, and soon reached 
Tubunda, and a few days later arrived at a point 
near Nyangwe. 

"This point lies about three hundred and fifty 



188 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

miles from Ujiji, and it required forty days of 
marching to reach it. Livingstone was the first 
white man who ever succeeded in reaching the 
place, and he was still remembered by many of 
the inhabitants. When Stanley appeared among 
them, they at once supposed that he must know 
the white man who had been there previous to 
the visit of Cameron, and dwelt among them, 
breaking to them the Bread of Life. 

" ' Did you know him V eagerly inquired an old 
chief of Stanley. 

" ' Yes, I knew him, 5 was the reply. 

a Turning to his companions, the chief said : 

"'He knew the good white man. Ah! we 
shall hear all about him.' 

" Then turning to Stanley, he asked : 

" ' Was he not a very good man ?' 

" ' Yes,' was Stanley's reply, ' he was good, my 
friend ; far better than any white man or Arab 
you will ever see again.' 

" ' Ah,' said the aged chief, ' you speak true ; 
he was so gentle and patient, and told us such 



DOWN THE CONGO. 189 

pleasant stories of the wonderful land of the 
white people. The aged white man was a good 
man, indeed.' ? 

As he stood upon the last point which Living- 
stone had reached, Stanley recalled to mind the 
earnest words which that hero had uttered when 
pressed to return home : 

"No, no, no; to be knighted, as you say, by 
the queen, welcomed by thousands of admirers, 
yes — but impossible ; it must not, can not, will 
not be !" 

"This," says Stanley, "is a most remarkable 
region, — more remarkable than anything I have 
seen in Africa. Its woods, or forest, or jungles, 
or brush, — I do not know by what particular 
term to designate the crowded, tall, straight trees, 
rising from an impenetrable mass of brush, 
creepers, thorns, gums, palm, ferns of all sorts, 
canes and grass— are sublime, even terrible. In- 
deed, nature here is remarkably or savagely 
beautiful. From every point the view is enchant- 
ing, the outlines eternally varying, yet always 



190 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

beautiful, till the whole panorama seems like a 
changing vision. Over all, nature," he says, 
" has flung a robe of varying green ; the hills and 
ridges are blooming, the valleys and basins exhale 
perfume, the rocks wear garlands of creepers, the 
stems of the trees are clothed with moss, a thou- 
sand streamlets of cold, pure water stray, now 
languid, now quick, toward the north and south 
and west. The whole makes a pleasing, charm- 
ing illustration of the bounteousness and wild 
beauty of tropical nature. But, alas ! all this is 
seen at a distance. When you come to travel 
through this world of beauty, the illusion van- 
ishes. The green grass becomes as difficult to 
penetrate as an undergrowth, and that lovely 
sweep of shrubbery a mass of thorns, the gently 
rolling ridge an inaccessible crag, and the green 
mosses and vegetation in the low grounds that 
look so enchanting, impenetrable forest belts." 

While in the vicinity of Nyangwe, Stanley 
chanced to meet Tippoo Tib, who had befriended 
Cameron while on his journey. We shall meet 



DOWN THE CONGO. 191 

with this old gentleman again ere our tale 
is done. From him he learned that Cameron 
had been unable to explore the Lualaba, and thus 
the work which Livingstone had not been able to 
complete was as yet unfinished. 

" Not believing, as Livingstone did, that the 
Lualaba was the remote southern branch of the 
Nile, but having the same conviction as Cameron, 
that it was connected with the Congo, and was 
the eastern part of that river, and having, what 
Livingstone and Cameron had not, an ample 
force and sufficient supplies, he determined to 
follow the Lualaba, and ascertain whither it led. 
He met with the same difficulty that Livingstone 
and Cameron had encountered in the unwilling- 
ness of the people to supply canoes. They 
informed him, as they had the two previous 
explorers, that the tribes dwelling to the north on 
the Lualaba were fierce and warlike cannibals, 
who would suffer no one to enter their territories, 
as the Arab traders had frequently found to their 
cost. That between Nyangwe and the cannibal 



192 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

region the natives were treacherous, and that the 
river ran through dreadful forests, through 
which he would have to make his way — informa- 
tion which afterward proved to be true. He 
nevertheless resolved to go ; but it was not easily 
accomplished, as the people of Nyangwe filled his 
followers with terror by the accounts they gave 
of the ferocious cannibals, the dwarfs with 
poisoned arrows who dwelt near the river, and 
the terrible character of the country through 
which they would have to pass ; which had such 
a disheartening effect upon them that difficulties 
arose which would have been insurmountable to 
any one but a man of Stanley's indomitable per- 
severence, sagacity and tact. He overcame all 
obstacles ; succeeded in getting canoes, and in 
engaging an Arab chief and his followers to 
accompany him a certain distance ; an increase of 
his force which gave confidence to his own people. 
" Those who are acquainted with the dangers 
and difficulties of African exploration, and who 
know how frequently the most sagacious conclu- 



DOWN THE CONGO. 19 



9 



sions, founded upon what seemed to be reliable 
information, have not only been attended by fail- 
ure, but with the most disastrous results, can 
alone fully appreciate what Stanley undertook, 
and the hazard which he ran in determining to 
follow the river in its northerly course. The 
river ran to the north, apparently in the direction 
of the sources of the Nile. He had Livingstone's 
conviction that it was the remote source of that 
river. He knew nothing of the fact that the 
southern part of the Mwutan Nzige (Albert 
N'yanza) had been explored by Gessi, and that no 
large river flowed into it. The theory, moreover, 
that he had formed of the course of the Lualaba 
was different from that of Cameron's conclu- 
sion, that a little above Nyangwe it turned to 
the west and flowed to the Atlantic coast ; 
whereas Stanley's conviction was, as subse- 
quently proved to be the fact, that it flowed on to 
the north, beyond the equator, and then turned 
to the west as part of the Congo. To follow the 
river, however, in its northerly course, might 



194 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

lead him, if his theory should not be verified, into 
the interior of northern Africa, where he would 
be, with a large body of followers, without sup- 
plies, and in a state of utter destitution. 

"He fully appreciated the great risk he ran. 
It was to him a matter of painful and anxious 
thought, but, after fully considering it in all its 
bearings, he came to the bold and fixed deter- 
mination to follow up his theory ; and in this he 
exhibited the same geographical instinct which 
he has referred to as such a remarkable faculty 
in Captain Speke, the discoverer of Lake Ukere- 



we." 



Writing from Nyangwe, Stanley says : "I am 
determined to stick to the Lualaba, come fair or 
foul, fortune or misfortune. I have supplies for 
six months ; beyond that Heaven knows what 
will become of us if we should find the Lualaba 
running into some unknown river, with not a 
single bead or cowrie with which to buy food." 

"It required no little heroism on the part of 
Stanley to face the dangers which he knew must 



DOWN THE CONGO. 195 

lay between him and that point, one thousand 
eight hundred miles distant, where the Congo, 
ten miles wide, rolls into the broad bosom of the 
Atlantic. Notwithstanding all the dangers which 
lay before them, Tippoo Tib agreed to accompany 
Stanley with his soldiers the distance of sixty 
marches, for $5,000." 

Stanley rested until the 5th of November, 
when, having been joined by Tippoo Tib with 
seven hundred men, he set out upon his journey. 

As the expedition left Nyangwe, it numbered 
eight hundred and seventy-six men. Of these, 
one hundred and seventy-six were regularly 
attached to the expedition, while the remainder 
belonged to Tippoo Tib. Of Stanley's men, sixty- 
three were armed with muskets, and the remain- 
der with rifles, double-barreled guns, and pistols ; 
while Tippoo Tib's men had one hundred flint- 
lock muskets, and the remainder were armed 
with spears and shields. Besides these, there 
were some sixty-eight axes belonging to the 
party, which Stanley had purchased at Nyangwe. 



196 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Besides their weapons the men carried upon 
their shoulders all the provisions, large quantities 
of cloth, beads, wire and ammunition, in addition 
to the Lady Alice, which was carried in sec- 
tions. 

Traveling through the virgin jungle was ter- 
ribly trying to all ; from three to six miles a day 
was all that could be accomplished. At last, on 
the 19th of March, they reached the Lualaba, 
which swept grandly on to swell some stream 
beyond. The point where they reached the river 
was at 3° 33 ' 17 " south latitude, being forty-one 
geographical miles north of Nyangwe. Our hero 
at once determined to proceed by the river, the 
men having desired that he should do so. The 
Lady Alice was then put together, and he 
says : " I formed the resolution never to abandon 
the Lualaba until I learned its destination.'' 

He made an encouraging speech to his men, 
telling them that they had promised at Zanzibar 
to follow him for three years, wherever he wanted 
to go, and that there was one year left. " I will 



DOWN THE CONGO. J97 

not," he said, " leave this river until I reach the 
sea, and I promise you that we shall reach it 
before the year is out. All I ask of you is to 
follow me in the name of G-od." Upon which 
fifty of the youngest stepped forward and 
shouted, "In the name of God, then, master, we 
will follow you." 

The river at this point was nearly three-quar- 
ters of a mile wide, and its opposite shore appeared 
like a dark and gloomy forest. They had scarcely 
launched the boat, than the farther shore seemed 
to swarm with human beings, and as Stanley 
approached it he saw several canoes tied to the 
trees. He endeavored to hire the natives to take 
the expedition across the stream, but they stub- 
bornly refused. He then resolved to carry his 
men across the stream by detachments in the 
Lady Alice, The first load contained thirty men, 
and having reached the shore, Stanley told the 
natives that if they would assist him in carrying 
the rest of the men across, they should be well 
paid for it. After a great deal of talk they agreed 



198 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to do so, and soon the entire party were carried 
safely over the stream. 

Stanley now decided to change the name of the 
Lualaba to that of Livingstone, and pushed on 
down the river. Himself and thirty-three men 
proceeded by water in the Lady Alice, while the 
remainder of the party, under the direction of 
Frank Pococke, went by land, "communication 
between the two parties being kept up by oc- 
casional taps given upon drums, by which either 
party was able -to know the situation of the other. 
As before, the villages which they passed were 
deserted at their approach, the inhabitants leaving 
everything behind them as in terror they fled. 
At one point they found six canoes, which had 
been abandoned, some of which were injured 
very badly, while others with a little labor could 
be used by the travelers. These they repaired, 
and having lashed them together, they became a 
sort of floating hospital, in which the sick of the 
land party were placed. The exposure which 
they had undergone had greatly increased the 



DOWN THE CONGO. 199 

number of the sick, so that the finding of the 
canoes was indeed fortunate. In the afternoon 
of the same day, they reached the first rapids 
which they had seen upon the river. In endeav- 
oring to pass them several of the boats were 
upset, and four Snider rifles lost. The natives 
accepted this as a good opportunity to attack the 
party, and accordingly sent a shower of arrows 
and spears among the men ; they were, however, 
soon beaten off." 

Their progress down the Livingstone was very 
slow, and consequently very monotonous. The 
natives continued hostile, and ever and anon they 
would dart out from some hiding-place and make 
an attack upon Stanley's company, while they 
kept up a continual tooting of horns and pound- 
ing their war-drums. At last the natives beat a 
hasty retreat. The force which Stanley had 
with him in this running fight numbered forty 
men ; of these, four were killed and thirteen 
wounded. 

" The night after the retreat of the savages was 



200 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

dark and stormy. One could see but a short dis- 
tance before him. Upon the opposite side of the 
river, farther up the stream, Stanley saw the 
enemy's camp-fires shine brightly, and he deter- 
mined to play a trick upon them. Leaping into 
the Lady Alice, he pushed on towards the distant 
camp-fire, while Frank Pococke was stationed a 
short distance below him to assist in his venture. 
Carefully approaching the camp, he saw some 
forty canoes moored to the shore. He soon cut 
their moorings, when they were secured by 
Pococke and conveyed to camp. This done, Stan- 
ley knew that the natives could not cross the river 
to attack him, and he retired to rest, conscious of 
having a little undisturbed sleep. On the follow- 
ing day he repaired to the camp of the natives, 
and offered to make peace with them. This offer 
was gladly accepted, they desiring only that their 
canoes might be returned. After an exchange of 
blood, Stanley returned fifteen canoes, retaining 
twenty-three." 

Tippoo Tib now informed Stanley that he should 



DOWN THE CONGO. 201 

go no farther with him, as his men were rapidly 
dying from exposure ; and, instead of reaching 
the end of their difficulties, they had but just 
begun them. " Keally, he and his men were 
more of a hindrance than a help, a large number 
of them being sick, and Stanley saw that, rid of 
them, he could proceed with boats, they having 
enough to carry the remainder of the party. 
There was but one thing that w x as to be feared ; 
the effect which the withdrawal of so large a force 
would have upon the men. But he determined 
to brave it. He called the company together, and 
announced the chief's intention, after which he 
talked kindly with them, and asked if there had 
ever been a time -when he had not been kind to 
them, looked after their interests, and performed 
all his agreements with them ; and then told them 
if they would only trust him, he would bring 
them at last to the ocean, and see that they were 
carried back to Zanzibar. He closed by saying : 
' As a father looks after his children, so will I look 



202 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

after you.' The men replied with a loud shout 
and decided to remain with him." 

Preparations were at once made for contin- 
uing the journey. The canoes were repaired, pro- 
visions gathered, and everything done to assist 
them to proceed speedily when once they had set 
out. On the 28th Stanley mustered his force, 
now numbering only one hundred and forty-six 
men, and made ready to continue his route down 
the river. 

The record of the next few weeks was a succes- 
sion of perils from cannibals and cataracts. At 
length they came to the sixth cataract, over which 
they could not pass in safety, and therefore were 
forced to haul their canoes around it. Says 
Stanley : 

"It will give an idea of a short hour we lived 
through while hauling our canoes past one of the 
cataracts under the equator. By night a road 
had been cut, about five hundred yards in length, 
through a thick forest and thicker undergrowth, 
and what we have clipped out of the woods we 



DOWN THE CONGO. 203 

have arranged on the ground, over which, at sun- 
rise, a working party has been detailed to haul the 
canoes. The women, children and goods, before 
dawn, under an escort, have been taken to the 
new camp, with its impenetrable stockade. At 
the old camp are a dozen sharpshooters lying in 
w^ait outside in the jungle. Along the flank on 
the forest side are the sharpshooters which have 
been detailed for the defense of the working-party 
in the new camp. Frank and a dozen good men 
are sent to defend it. It is an hour that no one 
must be idle in, for it is absolutely necessary that 
the early daylight should be spent in moving 
from one camp to the other, before the cannibals 
have gathered in the woods in force, as they have 
been accustomed to. For we have found that the 
night hours are the best to work in, the cannibals 
having a horror of the dark, dread wood, with its 
weird noises and startling interruptions." 

The river reached at last, thejfcpush onward, 
notwithstanding the savages are near and show- 
ers of arrows fall among them. At last they 



204 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

come to the seventh and last of the series of cata- 
racts, when, as usual, they are obliged to fight 
in order, to pass round it. This series of cataracts 
extended the distance of forty-two geographical 
miles, and to pass them they were forced to drag 
their boats more than thirty miles by land, and 
cut a track of thirteen miles through a dense 
forest. At this point, which was beyond the 
equator, in 0° 14' 52" north latitude, the river 
gradually widened until it became a noble 
stream. 

"When they had reached between the 24th 
and 25th degrees of north longitude, they came to 
a magnificent tributary flowing into the river, 
with a width of two thousand feet, which Stanley 
supposed might be the Welle of Schweinfurth, or 
else the Aruwima. 

"As they approached the mouth of the large 
affluent, which flowed into the river, they were 
suddenly attacked by a force of fifty -four armed 
canoes, that rushed down upon them with such 
fury that four of their canoes became panic- 



DOWN THE CONGO. 205 

stricken. One of these hostile canoes was of 
great size, being propelled by about eighty pad- 
dles, and was guided by eight steersmen, with a 
planking in front holding about ten men, armed 
with spears, and a planking along its sides 
traversed by armed men. 

"In a second, almost, we were surrounded, 
and clouds of arrows were darted upon us for ten 
minutes ; but after a very serious contest, which 
at times was somewhat doubtful, these formidable 
assailants were repulsed, and the explorers pro- 
ceeded in safety down the river." 

Stanley was now in doubt what to do — 
whether to go up a great tributary which they 
had found — the Aruwimi, which at one time 
Stanley thought might be the Congo. But they 
kept on down the main stream. 

"On reaching very near the second parallel of 
north latitude, the river made a great curve to the 
west, and then flowed south-westerly with a width 
varying from two to ten miles, and was filled 
with islands, between which he was enabled to 



206 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

pass with less danger. Here a new trial aw^aited 
him. All attempts to communicate with the 
natives proved fruitless, and they had now 
before them the peril of starvation, having passed 
three days without food. 

"On the 14th of February, Stanley arrived 
among the tribes of Bangala, or Mangala, negroes 
who live on the right bank of the Livingstone 
river, in latitude 1° 16' 50". Sixty-three canoes 
met the hardy explorers ill the stream and, with- 
out warning, attacked them with muskets and 
missiles. Stanley immediately returned the fire, 
allowing his boat to float with the current. The 
battle lasted from noon to sunset, when, after a 
floating fight of ten miles, the fierce assailants 
drew off. This was the thirty-first fight of the 
expedition and the last but one." 

On approaching the next village they found the 
natives friendly and willing to furnish them with 
provisions. Stanley asked an aged chief the 
name of the river. The old man replied, " Aku- 
ta-ya Kongo." The great problem was, then, 



DOWN THE CONGO. 207 

solved. The Lualaba of Livingstone and the 
Congo of the Portuguese proved to be the same 
river. This was indeed joyful news for Stanley, 
who believed that now there would be but little 
difficulty in reaching the ocean, which lay eight 
hundred and fifty miles distant, they now being 
twelve hundred miles from Nyangwe. 

Stanley was now out of the region where the 
cannibals lived, and had, therefore, nothing to 
fear from them. But the dangers of the journey 
were not yet over. Before him the river rushed 
maldly on, now rolling along in boiling rapids, 
and then plunging over rocks in frightful cata- 
racts. The whole aspect of the country had 
changed, and now bore a wild and cheerless look. 

u After going a few miles the river assumed 
the form of two stretches of rapids and a cata- 
ract. The first of these was passed in safety ; but 
the passage of the second was more difficult. 
Having no fear of being attacked by the natives, 
Stanley went into camp ; and while the men 
rested themselves, he and Pococke explored the 



208 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

shore in order to ascertain the best method of 
passing the lower rapids. They decided that it 
was not safe to attempt to go down in the boats, 
but that the best way was for the whole party to 
proceed by land, carrying their baggage with 
them, while the boats were to be hauled along 
the stream by ropes. When at last they reached 
the calm and level water below the rapids, the 
men were almost fainting for want of food. 

"The large size of the canoes— one being 
eightly-five and another seventy feet long, hewn 
out of a solid tree— and the exhausted condition 
of the men was such, that it required nearly 
three days to pass this point. When navigable 
water was again reached, Stanley found the men 
so exhausted as to be unable to proceed, and 
therefore ordered a halt, and the whole party 
went into camp. After resting a few days they 
pushed on down the stream, and on the 25th of 
March were confronted by impassable rapids. 
An attempt was again made to haul the boats 
through them by ropes, but so strong was the 



DOWN THE CONGO. 209 

current that it wrenched one of the canoes from 
the grasp of the men leading it and dashed 
it against the rocks, which raised their ugly 
forms above the seething tide. While endeavor- 
ing to get the boats in safety past these rocks 
several of the men were injured, one having his 
shoulder dislocated, while Stanley was thrown 
into a chasm thirty feet deep, but succeeded in 
escaping with some slight bruises, having been 
fortunate enough to strike upon his feet as he fell. 
Two days were occupied in getting past this 
'cauldron, 5 as Stanley terms it, during which 
they came very near losing their largest canoe. 
On the 28th they were again afloat in smooth 
water, but it was only for a short distance, for 
they soon came to the 'Bocky Falls.' Having 
passed these in safety, two men were sent ahead 
to examine the river and country. They soon 
returned, and reported that at a point about a 
mile beyond, there was a great cataract, and at 
the head of it was a sandy bay, which would 
afford then a good camping-place. It was at 



210 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

once determined to push on and, if possible, reach 
this camping place before dark. In order to pass 
along in safety, it was necessary for them to hug 
the shore very closely, so as not to be drawn into 
the current and carried over the falls. Stanley 
led the way, keeping close to the right bank, and 
carefully feeling his way along." He says : 

"I led the way down the river, and in five 
minutes was in a new camp in a charming cove, 
with the cataract roaring loudly about five hun- 
dred yards below us. A canoe came in soon after 
with a gleeful crew, and a second one also arrived 
safe, and I was about congratulating myself for 
having done a good day's work, when the long 
canoe, which Kalulu had ventured in, was seen in 
mid-river, rushing with the speed of a flying 
spear towards destruction. A groan of horror 
burst from us as we rushed to the rocky point 
which shut the cove from view of the river. 
When we had reached the point, the canoe was 
half-way over the first break of the cataract, and 
was then just beginning that fatal circling in the 



DOWN THE CONGO. 211 

whirlpool below. We saw them signaling to us 
for help ; but alas ! what could we do there, with 
a cataract between us? We never saw them 
more. A paddle was picked up about forty miles 
below, which w r e identified as belonging to the 
unfortunate coxswain, and that was all." 

Leaving this point, and passing on down the 
river, they soon came to a series of rapids. These 
they passed in safety, Stanley conducting the 
boats, while Pococke led the main party, who 
carried the goods, overland. Thus one day after 
another was passed in fighting the rough and 
turbulent river along which they w^ere passing. 
At some points the water was so rough that it 
was impossible to shoot the boats through them, 
when they had to be hauled to the land and pulled 
around the dangerous point. It was slow and 
worrying work, and the progress w^hich they 
made seemed very little. But still they worked 
on and on, strengthened by the thought that 
sooner or later they would reach the ocean/ 

" While they were passing through scenes like 



212 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

these, although the natives were very kind and 
furnished them with large supplies of provisions/ 
yet all these things had to be paid for, and it was 
a question of no little moment which presented 
itself as to how long their currency would last. 
Although they had already gone many hundred 
miles, still they had several more to go, and they 
could not tell how long they would be in doing it. 
The time occupied in reaching the point now 
attained had been far beyond what Stanley 
expected it would require to reach the open sea ; 
and therefore he was still unable to tell how long 
it would be before they would reach the coast. 
The next rapids w T hich they came to well-nigh 
capsized the Lady Alice, and nearly drowned 
Stanley. Both, however, escaped. 

As he advanced he saw many signs which told 
him that he was approaching the shore. Many 
of the articles used by the natives were of English 
make, and such as he knew could not be obtained 
without communication with the coast. While 
this was encouraging he could not tell how many 



DOWN THE CONGO. 213 

weeks must pass before the goal of his ambition 
•would be reached, if reached at all ; and hence it 
became necessary that he should be economical in 
the use of his goods and provisions, particularly 
meal. For lack of the latter, he prepared some 
very palatable dishes from vegetables, fruit and 
oil. 

For ninety -three miles it had been almost a 
continual struggle with cataracts and rapids, 
there being only an occasional stretch of smooth 
water in all that distance. To pass this ninety- 
three miles it had required one hundred and 
seventeen days. The season had now advanced 
into July, and although some were confident that 
ere long they would reach the coast, several who 
were sick seemed to have some doubts of it. As 
they continued down the river they occasionally 
came to dangerous rapids, but they succeeded in 
passing them in safety. Presently, Stanley found 
himself very near the sea. Great was the joy of 
his followers when he announced the glad news 
to them. 



214 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

u On the 30th of July they reached a point near 
the Falls of Isangila. While here Stanley learned- 
that they were only five day's march from Em- 
bomma, and that thfe distance was generally 
passed by the natives overland, on account of the 
large number of obstructions in the river between 
them and that village. Besides this, the real 
object of the expedition had been accomplished^ 
since from that point t(* the sea the river was 
well known, having been previously explored. In 
view of these facts, Stanley resolved to leave the 
river and made the rest of his journey by land.- 
Just as the sun sank behind the distant hills, thev 
drew the Lady Alice out of the river, and placed 
it upon some rocks near the bank, where they 
proposed to leave it. Having been his companion 
during all that long and toilsome journey, it 
seemed to Stanley like parting with a friend. But 
it must be done, and after bidding it farewell they 
passed on. 

" It was with the greatest difficulty that they 
could obtain food. Such things as they had been 



DOWN THE CONGO. 215 

accustomed to exchange for provisions now pos- 
sessed but little value. As a general thing, rum 
was demanded in exchange for such things as 
were needed by the travelers. On the 3d of 
August they reached Nsanda. The king of this 
district told Stanley that he had only three days 
more of marching to make before reaching the 
ocean. Stanley then asked him to carry a letter 
for him to Embomma. This the king refused to 
do, but after being urged for nearly four hours, he 
at last consented to furnish guides, who would 
conduct three of Stanley's men to the village. 
Having secured this promise from him, Stanley 
repaired to his tent to write the letter," which 
was as follows : 

" Nsanda, August Uh, 1877. 

"To any gentleman who speaks English at 

Embomma. 

" Dear Sir : I have arrived at this place from 

Zanzibar with one hundred and fifteen souls, men, 

women and children. We are now in a state of 



216 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

imminent starvation. We can buy nothing from 
the natives, for they laugh at our kinds of cloth, 
beads and wire. There are no provisions in the 
country that maybe purchased except on market- 
days, and starving people cannot afford to wait 
for these markets. I therefore have made bold to 
despatch three of my young men, natives of Zanzi- 
bar, with a boy named Eobert Ferugi, of the Eng- 
lish mission at Zanzibar, with this letter, craving 
relief from you. I do not know you, but I am 
told there is an Englishman at Embomma, and as 
you are a Christian and a gentleman, I beg of you 
not to disregard my request. The boy Eobert will 
be better able to describe our condition than I can 
tell you in a letter. We are in a state of the 
greatest distress, but, if your supplies arrive in 
time, I maybe able to reach Embomma in four 
days. I want three hundred cloths, each four 
yards long, of such quality as you trade with, 
which is very different from that we have ; but 
better than all would be ten or fifteen man-loads 
of rice or grain, to fill their pinched bellies imme- 



DOWN THE CONGO. 217 

diately, as, eveu with the cloths, it would require 
time to purchase food, and starving men cannot 
wait. The supplies must arrive within two days, 
or I may have a fearful time of it among the 
dying. Of course I hold myself responsible for 
any expense you may incur in this business. 
What is wanted is immediate relief, and I pray 
you to use your utmost energies to forward it at 
once. For myself, if you have such little luxuries 
as tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits by you, such as 
one man can easily carry, I beg you on my own 
behalf, that you will send a small supply, and add 
to the great debt of gratitute due to you upon the 
timely arrival of supplies for my people. Until 
that time, I beg you to believe me, 

" Yours sincerely, 

"H. M. Stanley, 
"Commanding Anglo-American Expedition 

for Exploration of Africa. 
" P. &. — You may not know my name ; I there- 
fore add, I am the person that discovered Living- 
stone. "H. M. S." 



213 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

When the letter was finished, Stanley gathered 
his men around him, and told them that he 
intended to send to Embomma for food, and 
desired to know who among them would go with 
the guides and carry the letter. No sooner had 
he asked the question, than Uledi sprang forward 
exclaiming, "0 , master, I am ready !" Other men 
also volunteered, and on the next day they set 
out with the guides. 

Passing along the banks of the Congo, they 
reached the village soon after sunset, and deliv- 
ered the letter into the hands of a kindly disposed 
person. For thirty hours the messengers had not 
tasted food, but they were now abundantly sup- 
plied. On the following morning — it was the 6th 
of August — they started to return, accompanied 
by carriers who bore provisions for the half-starv- 
ing men, women and children with Stanley. 

Meanwhile, he and his weary party were push- 
ing on as fast as their tired and wasted forms 
would let them. At nine o'clock in the morning 
they stopped to rest. While in this situation, an 



DOWN THE CONGO. 219 

Arab boy suddenly sprang from his seat upon the 
grass, and shouted : 

"I see Uledi coming down the hill !" 
Such was indeed the fact. Uledi was the first 
to reach the camp, and at once delivered a letter 
to his master. By the time Stanley had finished 
reading it, the carriers arrived with the pro- 
visions, and need we say that those half- starved 
people did them justice ? After he had given to 
each one as much food as he desired, Stanley 
turned to his own tent to open the packages 
which had been sent expressly for him. Deeply 
grateful for the substantial answer to his letter, 
he immediately penned another, acknowledging 
their safe arrival. The letter ran as follows : 

"Dear Sirs : Though strangers I feel we shall 
be great friends, and it will be the study of my 
lifetime to remember my feelings of gratefulness 
when I first caught sight of your supplies, and 
m)^ poor faithful and brave people cried out, 
' Master, we are saved— food is coming !' The 



220 HENRY M. STANLEY, 

old and the young men, the women and the child- 
ren lifted their wearied and worn-out frames and 
began lustily to shout an extemporaneous song in 
honor of the white people by the great salt sea 
(the Atlantic), who had listened to their prayers. 
I had to rush to my tent to hide the tears that 
would come, despite all my attempts at compos- 
ure. 

"Gentlemen, that the blessing of God may 
attend your footsteps, whithersoever you go, is 
the very earnest prayer of, 

"Yours faithfully, 

"Henry M. Stanley." 

The remainder of the day was spent in feast- 
ing, and in a good time generally, and on the 
next morning they started forward in high spirits. 
On the third day, as they were passing down a 
slope, they saw men approaching bearing ham- 
mocks, and soon Stanley stood face to face with 
four white men. After a short conversation 
they declared that he must get into one of the 



DOWN THE CONGO. 221 

hammocks ; and borne on the shoulders of eight 
men be carried into the village of Embomma— or 
Boma, as it is now called. He reluctantly con- 
sented, and was thus borne in triumph into the 
village, where he was received with great rejoic- 
ing. Kemaining here one day, they took a 
steamer for the mouth of the river, and shortly 
reached Kabinda. So great was the re action 
from almost starvation to plenty, that several of 
the caravan died. One of them was buried at 
this point ; four died at St. Paul, and three more 
while on the passage to Cape Town. It was with 
the greatest exertion that Stanley saved himself 
from falling victim to a similar fate. After 
remaining eight days at Kabinda, they embarked 
on board a Portuguese vessel for St. Paul de 
Loanda. It will be remembered that it is from 
this point that most of the caravans bound for 
the interior start. 

" Arriving here, the governor-general kindly 
offered to give him passage in a gunboat to Lis- 
bon. It was a tempting offer, but Stanley polite- 



222 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ly declined it. He had promised to see his follow- 
ers landed at Zanzibar, and he meant to keep that 
promise. Soon after, a passage to Cape Town 
being offered him on board the British ship 
Industry, he embarked with his expedition. He 
was gladly welcomed at Cape Town, and at the 
request of some of the leading men of the place, 
he delivered a lecture there, in which he briefly 
narrated the journey which he had made, particu- 
larly that part of it relating to the Congo. Pas- 
sage was offered him in a British vessel bound 
for Zanzibar, which he accepted, and on the 6th of 
November, almost six months after they had 
reached the coast, they sailed for that place. In 
due time they reached their destination, where 
they were received with great rejoicing." 

The great journey was now over, and after 
paying the men the sum agreed upon, and the 
relatives of those lost what they would have 
received, Stanley bade his men adieu. The mys- 
tery of the Congo, and of the source of the Nile, 
had at last been revealed. It had been a great 



DOWN THE CONGO. 223 

undertaking, but it had been accomplished. 
Stanley's own words will best describe the condi- 
tion of those daring travelers while passing down 
the Congo: "On all sides," he says, "death 
stared us in the face ; cruel eyes watched us by 
day and by night, and a thousand bloody hands 
were ready to take advantage of the least oppor- 
tunity. We defended ourselves like men who 
knew that pusillanimity would be our ruin among 
savages to whom money is a thing unknown. I 
wished, naturally, that it might have been other- 
wise, and looked anxiously and keenly for any 
sign of forbearance or peace. My anxiety 
throughout w^as so constant, and the effects of it, 
physically and otherwise, have been such, that I 
now find myself an old man at thirty-five." 



224 HENRY M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 

No classic legends or mythic stories are clus- 
tered around the banks of the mighty Congo, 
whose tawny torrent far exceeds in volume the 
floods rolled to the sea by either the Old or the 
New World "Father of Waters." Peopled by 
savage tribes, the banks of this mid-American 
water-way are equally barren in records of 
human weal or woe, and only within the last 
decade has the keel of the adventurous Anglo- 
Saxon cleft its waves from source to sea, or the 
strokes of his hammer and ax awakened unac- 
customed echoes in the gloomy forests that clothe 
its precipitious banks. 

During the long centuries when the adventur 
ous blades of northern Europe were carving out 
new empires " across the Western Ocean," the 




Bi^^^S*^ 



EMIN PASHA (DR. SCHNITZLER.) 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 227 

great southern continent near at hand remained 
a terra incognita, save for a narrow belt of coast 
country dominated by Portuguese traders ; while 
the gaps of the interior were peopled by the 
guessing geographers of the day with " savage 
pictures "in lieu of inhabitants, and with "ele- 
phants for want of towns." Even in our own 
day so little were the possibilities of the Congo 
country suspected, that Livingstone is reported to 
have said that " he would not be made into black 
man's pot " for the sake of it. The slave-catcher 
and the ivory- trader were the virtual monarchs 
of this vast domain. 

True, the intensest rivalry prevailed among the 
factors of the English, Dutch, and Portuguese 
coast settlements for a lion's share of the profit- 
able commerce in such native commodities as 
palm-oil, rubber, copal, ivory, and palm nuts. 
But these confined themselves to their factories, 
seldom ascending higher than Yellala Falls, the 
lowest of the Livingstone series of cataracts. 
Communication was had with the tribes of the 



228 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

interior (and is still) by means of the middleman, 
or ik lingster," a half-Europeanized native or 
Arab, for whom the climate had no terrors. And 
although the Portuguese have been on the ground 
for nearly four centuries, they have added but 
little to our stock of knowledge concerning the 
great river whose yellow flood ceaselessly laves 
the jetties of their trading-posts. The armed 
ships of various other nations, too, occasionally 
anchored inside Banana Point, but usually 
departed as unenlightened as they came. 

Captain Tuckey, in 1816, was dispatched by the 
British Government on an exploring expedition 
to the Congo region. The prospects for a rich 
harvest of geographical and ethnological data 
were never more promising ; yet never was the 
ending, even of an Arctic errand, more disastrous 
or discouraging. Within less than three months 
of reaching the scene of their labors eighteen of 
the officers and scientists died of African fever, 
including Captain Tuckey. The results of this 
attempt were nil, with the additional unfortunate 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 229 

effect of deterring all further scientific missions 
for a full half century. Until Stanley's heroic 
feats Europeans had never ascended the Congo 
further than the Livingstone Falls. 

In 1866 Dr. David Livingstone began the jour- 
ney, destined to be his last, whose object was the 
survey of the water-shed between Lake Nyassa 
and Lake Tanganika. The following year he 
discovered a large river flowing westward, and, in 
common with many other savants of his day, 
believed he had at last hit upon the most southerly 
head of the Nile. He followed the course of the 
new river, which was named Chambezi, until it 
entered Lake Bangweolo, under the native name 
Luapula, and flowed almost due north. After 
expanding into another lake, named Mweru, he 
last saw it as the Lualaba, now of mighty propor- 
tions, in the Manyema country, about fifteen 
hundred miles from its source. Livingstone died 
at Illala in 1873, ignorant of the fact that unwit- 
tingly he had come very near to making the 



230 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

greatest discovery of his life. But his mantle fell 
on worthy shoulders. 

In the year 1876 an expedition was sent to 
Africa under the combined patronage of The New 
York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph, 
commanded by Henry M. Stanley, to gather up 
the dropped threads of Livingstone's unfinished 
explorations. Arriving at the native town of 
Nyangwe, in Manyema, Stanley resolved to solve 
all doubts by following the mysterious stream to 
its mouth. Two hundred and eighty-one days 
later the battered canoes of these African Argo- 
nauts reached the Atlantic Ocean, having navi- 
gated the river for one thousand six hundred 
and sixty miles, and made portages around Stan- 
ley and Livingstone Falls of one hundred and 
forty miles, and proving conclusively that the 
Chambezi, the Luapula, or the Lualaba, was none 
other than the Congo. The story of the descent 
of this unknown river, through frequently hostile 
tribes, is told in the preceding chapter. 

The Congo is the Livingstone of modern explor- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 231 

ers and the Zaire of the Portuguese, to which 
latter name they most devotedly cling, though 
the word " Zaire" means simply, in the native 
tongue, "the great river." In the Lusiad, 
Camoens speaks of 

M That lucid river, the long-winding Zaire." 

The mouth of this noble stream was discovered 
by Diego Cam, a courtier and naval commander 
of Joao Second, of Portugal, in 1484-85, when 
coasting along Africa for the purpose of discover- 
ing a water-way to the East Indies. In accord- 
ance with the custom of the time the discoverer 
erected a pillar on the southerly side of its 
entrance, now called Shark's Point, and for some 
years thereafter the stream was known as " the 
Pillar Eiver, flowing through the kingdom of 
Congo." But about the beginning of the seven- 
teenth century, English map-makers began to call 
the stream the Congo, though the Portuguese to 
this day write and speak of it as the Zaire. 

Banana Point and Shark's Point are respectively 



232 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the northern and southern boundaries of the 
mouth of the Congo, which has no delta, entering 
the sea by a single channel. These "points" are 
both arc- shaped sandy spits, similar to our Sandy 
Hook or Cape Cod, within which is anchorage 
ground for the largest ocean greyhound of our 
day, and which are backed north and south by 
lofty, dark green verdure-clad hills, through a 
cleft in which the Congo issues like "a broad 
stream of daylight, parting the mass of woods 
into two sections," and bearing down upon the 
spectator " a majestic stretch of river, twenty 
miles long, of immense volume and force." The 
distance from Shark's Point to Banana Point is 
seven and a-half miles, while across what may be 
called the real embouchure of the river, bounded 
by Boulambemba Point and Viva Creek, is three 
and a-half miles. 

The Congo factories, flying the flags of vari- 
ous Powers, occupy nearly the whole of the sandy 
peninsula known as Banana Point, and on the 
harbor side are constructed the jetties. So low is 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 233 

this sand-spit that " the dark hulls of the shipping 
in the bay (viewed from the ocean,) seem to be 
riding on a higher plane than the ground covered 
by the buildings." Behind each of the Points are 
shallow creeks bearing the same names. 

It may be mentioned here that the Congo is, 
except at its mouth, virtually tide-less. At 
Banana there is a rise of six feet ; this is dimin- 
ished at Ponta da Lenha, twenty-eight miles up 
stream, to twenty- one inches ; and at Boma, 
twenty miles further, to tw r o or three inches. 
The ebb runs with great velocity near the mouth 
and continues twice as long as the flood. But the 
sea is not admitted into the estuary of the Congo. 
The phenomena of the flood tide is " simply the 
effect of the pressure of the sea upon the current 
of the river, which, checked in its velocity, rises 
to the heights above mentioned." Furthermore, 
as with the Amazon, its great American proto- 
type, the ocean is stained a muddy green or a pale 
brown by the fierce discharge of its impetuous 



234: HENRY M. STANLEY. 

torrent to the distance of a full day's steaming 
from its mouth. 

But the height of the river varies constantly 
during the year on account of rains in the inte- 
rior. The first or lesser rise happens in the latter 
part of March, and increases until the end of 
May ; then there is a decline until August. The 
greater rise occurs between September 1st and 
December 25th and from January 15th to March 
10th there is again a falling river, to be succeeded 
in turn by the lesser rise. These fluctuations are 
as steady and never-failing as the annual overflow 
of old Father Nile from a similar cause — an equa- 
torial rainfall. 

The entire length of the Congo is over three 
thousand miles, broken up as follows : from 
Banana to Vivi a navigable stretch of one hun- 
dred and ten miles ; thence to Isangila, innaviga- 
ble, fifty-two miles ; from Isangila to Manyapga, 
a fairly navigable reach of eighty-eight miles ; 
thence to Leopoldville, along the upper series of 
the Livingstone Falls, partly navigable, eighty- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 235 

five miles ; then comes the Upper Congo, from 
Leopoldville to Stanley Falls, an unobstructed 
stretch of 1068 miles ; from the lowest fall of this 
series to Nyangwe, three hundred and eighty-five 
miles ; from Nyangwe to Mweru four hundred 
and forty miles, including the length of Lake 
Mweru, sixty-eight miles ; thence to Lake Bang- 
weolo two hundred and twenty miles ; and from 
thence to its sources the Chambezi has a length 
of three hundred and sixty miles ; the total length 
from sea to source being 3,035 miles. 

"The Dark Continent had been traversed from 
east to west ; its great lakes, the Victoria Nyanza 
and the Tanganika, had been circumnavigated ; 
and the Congo Eiver had been traced from 
Nyangwe to the Atlantic Ocean. The members 
of the late exploring expedition had been taken 
to their homes, the living had been worthily 
rewarded, and the widows and orphans had not 
been neglected." 

Such are the modest yet memorable words in 
which Stanley summarizes what was perhaps one 



236 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of the greatest achievements of our modern con- 
quistadores. "Bula Matari," the natives named 
him — " Breaker of Rocks" — and in numberless 
ways he deserved his sobriquet. 

On reaching Europe in January, 1878, with a 
frame shattered by famine and fatigue and the 
perils and privations of the Congo downward 
journey, the last anticipation that entered Stan- 
ley's mind was that in less than a year he would 
be again threading the mazes of an African wil- 
derness, alternately scorched by its sunshine and 
chilled by the cool breezes that sweep up the 
funnel-shaped gorge of the Congo. But even 
while he was in the wilds of the Dark Continent, 
steps had been taken looking to the formation of 
an association of capitalists and philanthropists, 
having for its object the opening up of the Congo 
Basin to trade and civilization. At Marseilles 
railway station, then, the sick and weary explorer 
was met by two envoys from the King of the 
Belgians, who informed him that their royal 
master " intended to undertake to do something 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 237 

for Africa," and that Stanley was expected to 
assist him. In his then frame of mind and body, 
and with the memory of untold hardships still 
vividly present, what wonder that such munificent 
plans awoke no responsive thrill ! Stanley com- 
mended the project as a wise one, but for himself 
he said : ' ' I am so sick and weary that I cannot 
think with patience of any suggestion that I 
should conduct it." 

But Stanley the invalid, and Stanley re-invigor- 
ated by six months' rest and a brief pedestrian 
tour in Switzerland, were different beings. 
"With restored health," he naively says, " liberty 
became insipid and joyless ; that luxury of loung- 
ing which had appeared desirable to an ill-regu- 
lated and unhealthy fancy became unbearable ; 
with such views a letter from one of the commis- 
sioners requesting an interview, and appointing a 
meeting in Paris, was very acceptable." 

From this meeting, which occurred in August, 
1878, Stanley dates the formation of the project 
of the first enterprise to open up the rich region 



238 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of the Congo. ''For as yet it was only gene- 
rally understood that, as the Congo was ex 
plored, and the core of the Dark Continent 
accessible by it, something ought to be done 
to render it serviceable to the humanities that 
were encompassed around by roadless regions 
fatal to all good doing. All readily concurred in 
the proposition that my descent of the Congo had 
opened a highway into Africa, were it possible to 
utilize it." But how make use of this highway ? 
What enterprise should be undertaken ? In what 
character should a new expedition be despatched 
to the Congo ? Should it be purely geographical, 
philanthropic, or "commercial ? Or should the 
construction of a railway to join the Upper and 
Lower Congo be at once adventured on ? The dis- 
cussion and decision of these and various other 
equally weighty questions consumed the next 
three months. In November, 1878, Stanley 
was summoned to the Palace at Brussels, and 
there found " various persons of more or less 
note in the commercial and monetary world, 
from England, Germany, France, Belgium, and 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 239 

Holland." He was subjected anew to a fusillade 
of queries as to the commercial outlook and the 
geographical and political features of Congo land. 
The upshot of the conference was that then and 
there a fund was subscribed to equip an expedi- 
tion. The new body assumed the title Comite Cu 
Etudes .du Ha at Congo— " Committee for Study 
of the Upper Congo." One hundred thousand 
dollars were paid in for immediate use, and every 
member pledged himself to respond to each call 
for further funds, and a president, secretary, and 
treasurer were chosen. In the words of Stanley : 
" The expedition was to be immediately organized 
and equipped, and I was honored with the charge 
of its personnel and materiel to effect the object 
for which the committee was constituted. I was 
to erect stations, according to the means fur- 
nished, along the overland route — after due con- 
sideration of their eligibility and future utility — 
for the convenience of the transport and the Euro- 
pean staff in charge ; to establish steam commu- 
nication wherever available and safe. The stations 



240 HEISRY M. STANLEY. 

were to be commodious and sufficient for all 
demands that were likely to be made on them. 
By lease or purchase ground enough was to be 
secured adjoining the stations so as to enable 
them in time to become self-supporting if the 
dispositions of the natives should favor such a 
project. If it were expedient, also, land on each 
side of the route adapted to traffic was to be 
purchased or leased, to prevent persons ill-dis- 
posed toward us from frustrating the intentions 
of the committee through their love of mischief 
or jealousy. Such acquired land, however, might 
be sub let to any European, at a nominal rent, 
who would agree to abstain from intrigue, from 
inciting the natives to hostility, and from disturb- 
ing the peace of the country." This was the her- 
culean task, albeit narrated in such matter-of-fact 
fashion, set before our "Breaker of Bocks." It 
could not have been committed to worthier hands, 
as the sequel shows. 

We cannot follow Stanley through the mazes 
of preparation. Steamers were to be chartered 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 24o 

or built ; lighters, steel whaleboats, portable 
houses, and wagons constructed for use in haul- 
ing the launches around rapids and water- 
falls ; tools and weapons purchased ; provisions 
and clothing packed ; and the thousand and 
one articles of merchandise necessary to the 
traveler in Africa, from a bundle of brass rods to 
a musket, from a gaudy pocket handkerchief to 
an embroidered robe, from a string of colored 
beads to a roll of scarlet cloth, from a toy looking- 
glass to a japanned trunk, were to be selected and 
shipped. Meanwhile, Stanley was to proceed to 
Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa, in the 
steamer Leith — specially chartered — there to re- 
engage as many of his former comrades, Zanzi- 
baris, as would volunteer for another journey up 
the great river. In the interim it was hoped that 
all the boats and materiel would have arrived off 
the mouth of the Congo, ready for the coming of 
the chief. By the latter part of May, 1879, the 
steamer Albion, with a body of sixty-eight Zanzi- 
baris on board, departed on her long voyage to 



244 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the Congo via the Eed Sea and the Mediterranean. 
On August 14, 1879, just two years from the time 
when, footsore and famished, he had last set eyes 
on Banana Point, the intrepid explorer once more 
arrived off the mouth of the river, this time at 
the head of a well-equipped expedition charged 
with "the novel mission of sowing along its 
banks civilized settlements, to peacefully conquer 
and subdue it, to re : mold it in harmony with 
modern ideas into national states, within whose 
limits the European merchant shall go hand in 
hand with the dark African trader, and justice 
and law and order shall prevail, and murder and 
lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves forever 
cease." 

But little time was lost in preliminaries. 
Onward and upward was literally the watchword 
of the expedition, and seven days after the arrival 
of the Albion in Banana Creek the flotilla was 
ready for ascending the Congo. Early on the 
morning of August 21, a chorus of steam whistles 
aroused the echoes of the African hills, and pro- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 215 

claimed the dawn of a new era for Congo land, 
" just as a grander array of mighty ships in the 
year 1869 inaugurated the union of the Eed Sea 
with the Mediterranean," With their sterns to the 
sea and their stems pointing toward the interior 
the little fleet, consisting of the Albion, the Bel- 
giqae, sixteen horse-power and thirty tons 
measurement, the Royal, the Esperance, the En 
Avant, two steel lighters of twelve and six tons 
capacity, the Jeune Africaine steam launch, and a 
w^ooden whale-boat, proceeded up a channel from 
sixty to nine hundred feet deep, stemming slowly 
a nine-knot current. A full head of steam is kept 
up, and in exactly four hours Ponta da Lenha 
("Wood Point,") is reached, twenty-eight miles 
from Banana, the shores of which are cloistered 
by dark green groves, embowered in which are 
the whitewashed, low-roofed, broad-verandahed 
Dutch factories. As far as this trading-station 
the Great Eastern might have ascended with per- 
fect safety and be moored to the wharf close in 
shore. But a few miles above a treacherous 



2±6 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

shifting sand bar forbids the passage of any but 
craft of moderate draught — say sixteen feet. 

The scenery of this stretch of the lower Congo 
deserves a word of description. " On either hand 
the dark green walls of mangrove, intermixed 
with palm fronds, are apparently impenetrable, 
though the charts tells us that many a lazy creek 
traces its winding course amid the cool and silent 
shades of embracing leaf age. A break here and 
there shows the entrance of one of these, within 
the mazes of which a flotilla of piratical canoes 
might hide. The scene is devoid of all animate 
nature. Not a bird is seen, not a movement 
breaks the melancholy interest with which we 
regard it ; neither on the north bank, nor on the 
south bank, nor yet on the river, is there aught to 
disturb this lifelessness of sleeping nature. The 
river-flood glides serene in one unbroken, unruffled 
mass, but yet with an unmistakable resistless, 
though silent, energy. On the wooded shores 
there is a solemn loneliness as of death ; in the 
tranquil mass of ceaseless moving water we only 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 247 

see the peace of an undisturbed slumber." From 
bank to bank, just above Ponta da Lenha, the 
river measures four and a-half miles. 

Four hours' further steaming brought the fleet to 
Boma, forty-eight miles from Banana Creek. This 
is the chief trade depot on the Congo, and consists 
of a motley, but picturesque collection of factories 
and residences of the English, Dutch, French, and 
Portuguese merchants, the whole curving along 
the wooded shore, and in front of the wharves of 
which was a goodly array of foreign and native 
shipping. 

Altogether there are seven or eigjit steamers 
plying constantly beween Boma and Banana, 
conveying native produce and European goods for 
barter, not to mention scores of native canoes 
from up-river. So that this stretch of water-way, 
dotted with trading-stations, " cannot be said to 
be quite devoid of evidences of trade movement" 
and of the all-powerful influences of European 
thrift and industry. Nevertheless, says Stanley, 

the general prospect, whether over river or 



a 



248 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

land, is not prepossessing ; the eye is dissatisfied ; 
it hungers after more evidences of man and com- 
merce. Probably the human gregarious instincts 
are shocked or chilled by the unaccountable feeling 
of loneliness. Look resolutely away, or over the 
factories at your feet, from the crest of yonder 
hill, and you will understand why. There is a 
grand sweep of massive hills lifting and falling 
to the north ; a long undulating line of hilly land 
is visible across the river, stretching away into the 
dim distance ; there is a mighty breadth of living 
water slowly moving toward the sea, but I can 
detect no bgat, large or small, just at this present 
moment, on any part of its hundred square miles 
of surface. Over all the vast area of land visible, 
upland and plain, I see no aspiring tower or dome 
or chimney, nor even the likeness of human 
structure. Unfortunately, not a column of smoke 
threads the silent air to suggest the thought that 
I am not alone. All is nature — large, ample, 
untouched, and apparently unvisited by man. 
From all I can see, I may have been the first mam 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 249 

black or white, who has ever stood on the un- 
grateful soil under my feet." 

The peculiar quality of the African sunshine 
has been spoken of by nearly every traveler of 
note, and plays an important part in producing a 
feeling of inhospitality in all who visit equatorial 
Africa. It must be remembered, says Stanley, that 
there are different qualities of sunshine. "For 
instance, there is the hard, white, naked, undis- 
guised sunshine of north-eastern America ; there 
is the warm, drowsy, hazy sunshine of the Eng- 
lish summer ; there is the bright, cheery, purified 
sunshine of the Mediterranean. African sun- 
shine, however, always appears to me, with its 
great heat, to be a kind of superior moonlight, 
judging from its effects on scenery. Once or 
twice I speak of ' solemn-looking ' hills. I can 
only attribute this apparent solemnity to the 
peculiar sunshine. It deepens the shadows and 
darkens the dark green of the foliage of the 
forest, while it imparts a wan appearance or a 
cold reflection of light to naked slopes or treeless 



250 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

hill-tops. Its effect is a chill austerity, an inde- 
scribable solemnity, a repelling unsociability. 
Your sympathies are not warmed by it ; silence 
has set its seal upon it ; before it you become 
speechless. Gaze your utmost on the scene, 
admire it as you may, worship it if you will, but 
your love is not needed. Speak not of grace nor 
of loveliness in connection with it. Serene it 
may be, but it is a passionless serenity. It is to 
be contemplated, but not to be spoken to, for 
your regard is fixed upon a voiceless, sphinx-like 
immobility, belonging more to an unsubstantial 
dreamland than to a real earth. 

Boma has a hideous history. For two centuries 
it was the port of shipment for the cargoes of 
black humanity whose destination was the United 
States, the Brazils, and the West Indies. The 
emissaries of the slave-catcher and the slave- 
trader harried all this wide land, from the sea to 
Stanley Pool, until there was scarcely a native 
village that had not been forced to contribute its 
quota of defenseless men, women, and babes, who 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 251 

never returned to the palm thatched huts whence 
they were torn. This wholesale depopulation of 
one of earth's fairest regions explains why to day 
so many miles of these rich plateaus remain grass- 
grown and untilled, roamed by the elephant and 
the antelope. The memory of the Congo slave- 
traffic has justly become a by -word in the annals 
of even that * sum of all villainies." 

One of the chief objects of the expedition was, 
as we have seen, the founding of permanent 
stations for present observation and future 
trade. All available spots below and around Boma 
were already pre-empted, and, as was only natural, 
the trading firms already in possession viewed 
with none too friendly eyes the new venture. 
Stanley hoped to find some site above them all 
well adapted for the purpose in view. So, while 
the other steamers were unloading their freight 
at Boma and preparing to return to Banana for 
the remainder, the launch Esperance, the most 
powerful and speedy of the fleet, was prepared 
and provisioned for a dash up-stream " which 



252 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

should fix forever the ultimate point of naviga- 
bility and the site for the principal station of the 
Comite d' Etudes du Haut Congo." At a distance 
of thirteen hours from Banana by a nine-knot 
steamer, the plateau of Vivi appears on the north 
bank at the head of a stretch of very swift water, 
but at the foot of a wide, and comparatively tran- 
quil reach. Castle Hill, as it has since been 
named, towers almost perpendicularly three 
hundred feet from the river, but slopes gently on 
the landward side. From the base of this cliff- 
faced rock there projects a " level-topped isolated 
spur," sloping on the western side to a sandy 
river beach. Here the native guide, De-De-De, 
proposed that the new-comers should build. 

Stanley was not at first prepossessed in favor 
of the site. Bank grass covered it, waving high 
above their heads, so that it was well-nigh 
impossible to discern the conformation of the 
little plateau. However, the grass was fired, and 
in an hour the flames had licked the ground clear 
and revealed "a sand plot one hundred yards 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 253 

long and fifty yards deep, which to our strange 
eyes led nowhere except to a grassy forest some 
fifteen feet high or back again to the deep force- 
ful river, or up that tall, upright, grim rock !" 

A more minute inspection, however, revealed 
to Stanley the fact that though this site at Vivi 
possessed some disadvantages, not the least 
among which would be the difficulty of making 
a wagon-road to what must be the landing place, 
still, on rehearsing to himself what it was he 
desired and wished to discover, the value of this 
Vivi platform became more and more evident. 
As his thoughts shaped themselves the indispen- 
sable requisites were seen to be : A place easy of 
access from the sea, a neighboring population of 
conciliating tendency, salubrity of position, and 
a spot whence a feasible route to the interior 
might be made. 

Soundings made up and down the river, a 
palaver with the aborigines from the neighboring 
village of Chinsalla, and a rapid survey of the 
country inland, proved that Vivi possessed most 



254 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

of these advantages, and, ever quick to decide, 
the native lords of Vivi were summoned to a 
second consultation, in which Stanley's plans and 
proposals to purchase from them enough land to 
found a station were set forth by means of inter- 
preters. Finally, for goods of the value of £32 
and a rental of £2 per month, the site of Vivi was 
secured, with the additional right to make roads 
into the interior, the natives pledging themselves 
neither to make war on those using the roads nor 
to allow any other white man to settle in the 
region round about without Stanley's permission. 
In his diary Stanley records that he is not entirely 
pleased with his purchase ; but necessity com- 
pelled him, for it is the highest point of naviga- 
tion on the lower Congo opposite which a landing 
could be effected by steamers. 

The story of the founding of Vivi reads like an 
heroic epic. It tells of difficulties overcome 
and of well-night insurmountable obstacles sub- 
dued. "A more cruel or less promising task 
than to conquer the sternness of that austere and 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 255 

somber region could scarcely be imagined," writes 
Stanley " Its large, bold features of solidity, 
ruggedness, impassiveness, the chaos of stones, 
worthless scrub, and tangle of grass in hollow, or 
slope, or summit, breathed a grim defiance that 
was undeniable. Yet our task was to temper 
this obstinacy, to make the position scalable, 
even accessible ; to quicken that cold lifelessness ; 
to reduce that grim defiance to perfect submis- 
sion ; in a word, to infuse vigorous animation 
into a scene which no one but the most devoted 
standard-bearer of Philanthropy could ever have 
looked at twice with a view to its value. Our 
only predecessors in this region had been men 
despatched on an errand of geographical explora- 
tion, or tourists who had hastily passed through 
to visit the Falls of Yellala. Trade had shunned 
it ; religious zeal saw no fit field here for its 
labors ; perhaps its grimness of feature had 
daunted the zealot. But let us see what wakeful 
diligence, patient industry, and a trustful faith 
can make of it. The power of man is great, 



256 HENRY M. STANLNY. 

though he is a feeble, perishable creature ; with 
little strokes but many he has before this per- 
formed marvels ; his working life counts but a 
handful of hours, but with every hour — industry 
inspiring him — he makes his mark, and many 
marks make a rood." The heroic spirit breathing 
throughout this last sentence strikes the keynote 
of Stanley's career in Congo land. It earned 
him his title of "the Bock- breaker," and it 
brought him, not unscathed, but undaunted, to 
the goal of his labors at the foot of Stanley 
Falls. 

Work began at once in earnest. Boats were 
despatched down stream for provisions, tents, 
tools, and a hundred men. Then, on the morning 
of October 1st, the task of leveling the plateau 
and of building a road to the landing-place was 
attacked with vigor. The sites of the corruga 
ted-iron storehouses sent out from England, of the 
native houses, and of Vivi headquarters were 
staked out ; a garden was made by dint of carry- 
ing 2000 baskets of black loam from the valley on 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 25T 

the backs of the natives ; stables, poultry-houses, 
blacksmiths^ and carpenters' sheds were built, and 
by February 6 th, 1880, Stanley was able to write 
to the committee that the lower station was com- 
plete in all its details ; time, three months twenty- 
four days. The termination of this stage of the 
labors of the expedition was celebrated by a day's 
holiday and a banquet. Then to work again. 

Just above Vivi all navigation of the lower 
Congo is checked by the lower series of the 
Livingstone cataracts, which comprise Yellala, 
Iuga, and Isangila Falls, and several miles of 
intervening rapids. The distance from Vivi to 
Isangila is fifty-two miles, and a portage must be 
made for this distance around the obstruction. 
At this writing surveys have been made on the 
south bank for a railway to span this gap, 
but to Stanley it was virgin forest. The prob- 
lem confronting him at the commencement of 
this second stage was to make a practical 
wagon road through an unknown country, over 
which could be drawn heavy steel wagons con- 



258 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

taming the hull, boilers, and machinery of the 
boats destined to be used on the higher reaches. 
In addition was to be transported all the materiel 
of the expedition in packs on the backs of the 
trusty Zanzibaris, the goods necessary for barter 
and for presents to the rude potentates, and the 
food for the large force of men that would neces- 
sarily be engaged. Supplies of native produce 
could doubtless be obtained, but must not be 
entirely relied on. 

A sentence from a letter to the committee at 
home about this time furnishes some idea of the 
labor thus involved : " It is going to be a tedious 
task, I perceive very clearly, and a protracted 
one, to make a road fifty-two miles long, then to 
come back and transport a boat which may be 
moved only a mile a day perhaps, then to come 
back, hauling the heavy w T agon with us, to trans- 
port another heavy launch, and move on a mile a 
day again, then back for another heavy launch, 
and repeat the same operation for three heavy 
boilers three times, by which we see we have to 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 259 

drag the heavy wagon nine times over a fifty-two 
mile rough road, total nine hundred and thirty- 
six miles, before we can embark for our second 
station, without counting the delays caused by 
constant parties conveying provisions." 

A rapid reconnaissance to Isangila was first 
undertaken, in course of wilich many savage 
potentates were interviewed, and by a judicious 
use of presents treaties were drawn up guarantee- 
ing the integrity of the road from Vivi, and the 
comforting assurance was afforded that no serious 
obstacle of any kind would be offered by the 
native tribes. This preliminary, though very 
cursory survey of the country between Vivi and 
Isangila revealed a few of the obstacles to be 
overcome in road-building. There were ravines 
to be filled up, morasses to be crossed, bridges to 
be built, jungles to be penetrated, mountains to 
be flanked, and rocks to be removed. The native 
pathways running boldly "up and down inclines 
and declines of formidable steepness, and some- 
times along a six-inch wide ledge of rock around 



260 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the ends of water-courses," were simply out of the 
question ; and the task that weighed most heavily 
upon the chief of the expedition was the necessity 
of " finding available— in Nature if possible, by 
laborious industry if necessary— either continuous 
stretches or detached pieces of level land w^hich 
might be deftly connected together by a passable 
and safe road." .The country between the two 
objective points is a cruel one, but by dint of 
rambling about the hills and along the river, 
tracing the courses of streams and plunging into 
the depths of a perfect wilderness, Stanley was at 
length able to map out a feasible route to Isangila 
from Vivi Station. 

On the 18th of March, 1880, the initial blow 
was struck on the first road through the tropic 
land, with its enervating heats and treacherous 
changes of temperature. The narrative of this 
first day's labor is so vivid and lifelike that we 
shall allow the gallant commander to tell it in his 
own words : " On the 18th of March, 18S0, we 
marched to the Loa River and valley, and formed 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 261 

a camp, all the Vivi laborers being employed in 
conveying seventy sacks of beans, peas, lentils, 
rice and salt, as a first instalment of provisions 
for the pioneer force. During the rest of the 
morning we traced the line of road by means of 
flagstaffs bearing white cloth streamers, and a 
tall step-ladder to guide through the high grass 
the bearers of the half-mile cord and reel. It 
must be remembered that the grass in many cases 
was ten feet high, and in loamy hollows about 
fifteen feet. In the months of July, August, and 
September fires consume the old grass ; but so 
quick is the growth from the moment that the 
rains begin in September that by the middle of 
March it is as tall as a young forest. At mid- lay 
the pioneers were formed in line, hoes in hand, 
along the cord, and at a signal the work of 
uprooting the grass began. By night there was a 
clear roadway made fifteen feet wide and two 
thousand five hundred feet long." On April 22 
there were twenty-two and a-third miles of road 
completed, from Vivi Station to Makeya Manguba, 



262 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

at the junction of the Bundi Eiver with the Congo. 
For the present it was decided that the steamers, 
when hauled thus far, should transport the goods 
and equipage up the Bundi to the point found 
best adapted for further progress by means of the 
wagon road up the Bundi valley. By the 30th of 
July all the materiel, amounting to fifty-four 
tons, destined for the Congo, had been trans- 
ported to Makeya Manguba, to do which it had 
been necessary to actually travel nine hundred 
and sixty-six miles, although the real distance 
from camp to camp was only twenty-two miles on 
the road to Stanley Pool, nearly fifteen hundred 
miles away ! By this time the road from Vivi had 
become so hard and well-trodden that it presented 
the appearance of an old-country turnpike. 

Then the work of road-making up the Bundi 
valley was undertaken — a repetition of the toils, 
tribulations, and triumphs of the first stretch 
from Vivi to Makeya Manguba. In one year — or, 
to be absolutely correct, three hundred and sixty- 
six days, from February 21, 1880, to February 21, 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 263 

1881, the overland route was completed to Isangila 
camp, above the cataract, and three days later 
the boats, all scraped, cleaned, and painted, were 
launched, ready for a second stage of river transit. 
During the year the various marchings, haulings, 
and countermarchings reached a total of 2,352 
miles — an average of six and a-half miles a day — 
to gain an advance into the interior of only fifty- 
two miles ! u This was no holiday affair," writes 
the chief, " with its diet of beans and goat-meat 
and sodden bananas in the muggy atmosphere of 
the Congo canon, with the fierce heat from the 
rocks and the chill, bleak winds blowing up the 
gorge and down from seared grassy plateaus. 
Let the deaths of six Europeans and twenty-two 
natives and the retirement of thirteen invalid 
whites, only one of whom saw the interior, speak 
for us." And with naive modesty, at the conclu- 
sion of the record of this stupendous feat of 
engineering, without a word of self-glorification, 
Stanley adds : " And now we were all prepared 
to commence another section of our work of a 



264 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

somewhat different character to that which was 
now happily terminated." 

By the committee Mr. Stanley had been 
instructed to build three stations — one at Vivi, 
one at Manyanga, and one on the shores of Stan- 
ley Pool ; also to convey a steamer and a boat to 
the former place, and another steamer and boat 
to the latter. From Isangila to Manyanga — 
between the cataract of Isangila and the cataract 
of Ntombo Mataka — was eighty-eight miles, 
Manyanga being distant from Vivi Station one 
hundred and forty miles. In fourteen round 
trips up and down the various reaches of this 
eighty -eight miles of open river the boats and 
steamers transported by May 1, 1881, the houses, 
equipage, and baggage to the site of the second 
permanent station. 

But now the uniform good health enjoyed by 
the chief of the expedition failed, and a severe 
attack of African fever brought him to the gates 
of death. Again, however, his magnificent 
physique brought him through, and during his 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 2G5 

convalescence the news of the arrival of re-enforce- 
ments from Zanzibar acted like a bracing tonic. 
Though still weak and feeble, he was able to 
direct the building of the Manyanga Station, and 
to superintend the commencement of another 
wagon road toward Stanley Pool. 

What of the climate on the lower and upper 
Congo ? We have seen that even Stanley's sea- 
soned frame succumbed, while the large roll of 
invalided Europeans during the first three years 
would seem to augur a malign influence, if not 
actual insalubrity, for Europeans. The popular 
belief in a pestilential belt of coast country at the 
mouth of the Congo is a mere bugbear. From the 
sea to Vivi, one hundred and ten miles up the river, 

Africa has no terrors to those who will accommo- 

* 

date themselves to the changed atmospheric con- 
ditions. The scourge that decimates the ranks of 
explorers and residents on the Congo is not the cli- 
mate, but their own crass stupidity and obstinacy 
in refusing to abandon the habits of diet, drinking, 
and dressing suitable to temperate latitudes. Un- 



266 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

limited whiskey and gin, wine and bottled ale, may 
do for the parallels of London or New York, but 
are suicidal within a few degrees of the equator. 
"From the moment of arrival," says Stanley, 
"the body undergoes a itew experience, and a 
wise man will begin to govern his appetite and 
his conduct accordingly. The head that was 
covered with a proud luxuriance of flowing locks, 
or bristled bushy and thick, must be shorn close ; 
the bodv must be divested of that wind and rain- 
proof armor of linen and w^ool in w^hich it was 
accustomed to be encased in high latitudes, and 
must assume, if ease and pleasure are preferable 
to discomfort, garments of soft, loose, light flan- 
nels. The head covering which London and Paris 
patronize must give place to the helmet^ and 
puggaree or to a well-ventilated light cap with 
curtain. And as those decorous externals of 
Europe, with their somber coloring and cumbrous 
thickness, must yield to the more graceful and airy 
flannels of the tropics, so the appetite, the extrav- 
agant power of digestion, the seemingly uncon- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 267 

trollable and ever- famished lust for animal food, 
and the distempered greed for ardent drinks, must 
be governed by an absolutely new regime. Any 
liquid that is exciting, or, as others may choose 
to term it, exhilarating or inspiring, the unsea- 
soned European must avoid during daylight, 
whether it be in the guise of the commonly 
believed innocuous lager, mild Pilsen, watery 
claret, vin ordinaire, or any other i innocent ' 
wine or beer. Otherwise the slightest indiscretion, 
the least unusual effort or spasmodic industry 
may in one short hour prove fatal. It is my duty 
not to pander to a depraved taste, not to be too 
nice in offending it. I am compelled to speak 
strongly by our losses, by my own grief in 
remembering the young, the strong, and the 
brave, who have slain themselves through their 
own ignorance. 

Ui Uh petit verve de Cognac — a glass of small 
beer— -what can they matter?' asks the inexperi- 
enced, pleadingly. 

To me, personally, nothing ! To you, a sudden 



a 



268 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

death, perhaps a coup de soleil ! A frantic and 
insensate rush to the hot sun out of the cool shade, 
an imprudent exposure, may be followed by a 
bilious fever of who knows what severity, or a 
rheumatic fever that will lay you prostrate for 
weeks, perhaps utterly unfitting you for your 
work and future usefulness. You were inspired 
by that petit verve of Cognac — which, had you not 
taken, you might have been more deliberate in 
your movements, and more prudent than to need- 
lessly exert yourself in the presence of an enemj^ 
so formidable as is the tropic sun to a white man's 
head when sensitized by the fumes of Cognac. 

" Should you recover, you will blame Africa. 
6 Africa is cruel ! Africa is murderous ! Africa 
means death to the European !' And your stupid 
unreflecting friends, with their cowardly jargon, 
in Europe will echo the cry — simply because a 
weakling like you could not resist jour petit verve 
at mid-day. Must all this continent be subjected 
to the scourge of your vituperative powers ? 

" ' A man cannot exist on tea and coffee, or be 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 269 

continually drinking soup and water v whines one 
whose propensities are alarmed. 

"I do not demand that you should confine 
yourself to tea, or coffee, or soup — or water, or 
lemonade, or seltzer, or Apollinaris, or whatever 
other agreeable liquid you may wish to quench 
your thirst. I only suggest that if you wish 
to enjoy Africa, and do your pledged duty, 
avoid stimulants, under whatever name, during 
the day ; in the evening, moderate indulgence 
with your dinner in clarets, madeira, or white 
wines or champagnes is not harmful, but 
beneficial. At the same time this advice is not 
especially intended for you, but for young men 
desirous of distinguishing themselves for their 
ability to live and work in Africa. The brave 
man is he who dare live, and will not yield to 
death without a contest." 

The mean highest temperature is 90° Fah., the 
lowest 67°, while the heat of the sun on a clear 
day is from 110° to 115°. Clad in suitable gar- 
ments — light flannels — a European can perform as 



270 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

much worK on the Congo as he can in England, 
provided a roof or awning is above his head. For 
three months of the year it is decidedly chilly in 
the interior, owing to the high altitude ; while 
during the rest of the year cloudy or partially 
cloudy days are frequent, and there is always a 
cooling breeze blowing. The nights are invariably 
cool, and a blanket is, after a very short sojourn, 
found requisite for comfort. The sun is the only 
real enemy of the European, and a few judicious 
and timely precautions rob him of half his terrors. 
On July 15, 1881, Stanley started with a small 
company to reconnoitre the ground between 
Manyanga and Stanley Pool, and to obtain an 
eligible site for a station contiguous to the point 
where the navigability of the upper Congo com- 
mences. Owing to the indifference or hostility of 
the natives on the north bank, inspired by Mala- 
meen, the former sergeant of M. de Brazza, no 
ground could be secured there, and Stanley was 
forced to cross over to the south shore. The poli- 
tics of these primitive communities are as compli- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 271 

cated as those of the petty German States in the 
last century, and an explorer finds it extremely 
difficult to be on friendly terms with one tribe or 
village and escape the enmity of every other in 
all that section of country. After a tedious pala- 
ver and an extravagant outlay of finery for pres- 
ents, amounting to hundreds of pounds, an admir- 
able site for a station was secured, about a mile 
below the village of Kintamo. This, the principal 
station on the upper Congo, was named Leopold - 
ville, "in honor of the munificent and royal 
founder of the Association Internationale du 
Congo," to which the old name of 4 Comite 
d'Etudes du Haut Congo had given place since the 
departure of the expedition from Europe. Below 
the station foam the rapids of Kintamo ; above it 
opens out the lake-like, island-dotted expanse of 
Stanley Pool, from wiiich there is an unbroken 
stretch of one thousand and sixty- eight miles of 
clear and unobstructed river to Stanley Falls. 

The native concession once obtained, the found- 
ing and building of Leopoldville went on apace, 



272 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

though the nominal chief of Kintamo, the crafty 
and fawning Ngalyema, gave no end of trouble. 
This episode deserves a book to itself, says 
Stanley. Ngalyema's peculiar temper requires 
more than a few phrases before an exact repre- 
sentation of the man can be given. He is a 
grasping, greedy savage, whose bland roguery and 
smirking simplicity remind us irresistibly of 
Pecksniff. " It cost more money to overcome 
this man peacefully than the aggregate expendi- 
ture on all the chiefs of the country who possessed 
something substantial to give us in exchange. 
Through long patience, liberality, and a timely 
hint now and then that he might be sorry for 
going beyond certain bounds, he w T as at last fairly 
won to good behavior and a stout and friendly 
alliance," which last happy result gave Stanley 
leisure to prepare for his long-deferred journey up 
river on an errand of exploration. 

Leopoldville stands just within the Garden of 
the Congo. The belt of rough and sterile country 
through which we have accompanied our brave 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 273 

explorers may be compared to the rough and 
rugged shell surrounding a sweet and meaty ker- 
nel. The beauty and fertility of the country on 
whose threshold they now stood baffle calculation. 
Millions of acres of unsurpassed fertility greet the 
eye from the summit of any eminence. "Even 
now it is almost idyllic in appearance, yet there 
are only the grass huts of Kintamo conspicuously 
in view ; the rest is literally only a wilderness of 
grass, shrubs, and tree-foliage. But my mind, 
when I survey this view, always reverts to the 
possibilities of the future. It is like looking at 
the fair, intelligent face of a promising child ; we 
find naught in it but innocence, and we fondly 
imagine that we see the germs of a future great 
genius — perhaps a legislator, a savant, a warrior, 
or a poet. Supposing the rich fertile soil of that 
plain, well-watered as it is by many running 
streams, were cultivated, how it would reward the 
husbandman! How it would be bursting with 
fullness and plenty ! In all the Mississippi valley 
there is no soil to equal it, yet here it lies a 



274 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

neglected waste." And perhaps for generations 
yet the prospect will possess the same idle slum- 
berous appearance it presents to-day ! 

The situation of Leopold ville is most fortunate. 
On a natural grassy plateau of easy ascent from 
the river, in a crescent-shaped indentation of the 
shore, the station commands a view of the wide 
expanse of Stanley Pool and its islands. Water 
was handy ; fuel was abundant ; a one-story 
block-house, impregnable to attack and proof 
against fire, offered safe refuge in case trouble 
should arise with the surrounding natives. Such 
a contingency, however, seemed very remote. 
So that it was with feelings of perfect security 
that Stanley left Leopoldville under the command 
of a subordinate, while he made a dash up- 
stream. 

On this tour of observation another small 
station — the sixth in all — was founded at Mswata, 
fourteen hours' steaming from Leopoldville. 
And then, while waiting for the arrival of the 
Europeans and stores left at Yivi and destined 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 275 

for the upper Congo, Stanley utilized the time by 
exploring the Kiva Kiver, a south bank tributary 
of the Congo, " in order to discover whether any 
special advantages would result from a more 
intimate acquaintance with that river and its 
tribes." Once more the little steamer En Avard 
turned her prow toward the center of the con- 
tinent, her commander, undeterred by weird tales 
of perils in the way, such as volcanic waters, 
rocky impassable barriers, and savage natives 
whose spears were longer and sharper than any 
others. The steamer was equipped for a nine 
days' absence, and on the 19th of May, 1SS2, was 
commenced one of the most fateful journeys ever 
undertaken by "Bula Matari." 

Three hours and forty minutes from Leopold - 
ville, or four hundred and forty miles from the 
sea, the deep and rapid embouchure of the Kiva, 
four hundred and fifty yards wide, was entered. 
The stream proved to be very tortuous, though 
• the current perceptibly slackened as the ascent 
progressed. But wood for the engine was scarce, 



«p 



276 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and the natives on either shore suspicious and dis- 
obliging. Progress under these conditions was 
much slower than Stanley had calculated, and 
soon the provisions ran low. A few fish were 
obtained from the natives, so Stanley pressed on, 
for rumors of a great lake ahead of a nature well 
calculated to fire the soul of an ardent explorer 
were rife among the tribes dwelling along the 
Kiva. This river, about eighty miles from its 
mouth, splits into the Mfini and Mbihe. Steering 
boldly into the former branch, which varied from 
two hundred and fifty to four hundred yards in 
breadth, with a current of two and a-half knots an 
hour, on the morning of the 26th a sudden widen- 
ing of the horizon ahead, the receding of the 
banks on either hand, and an almost total cessa- 
tion of the current, told that some abrupt change 
in the riverine scenery was at hand. Neither of 
the native guides had ever been so far, nor was 
their dialect now intelligible to the denizens of 
the banks of the Mfini. Stanley soon suspected 
that he had discovered another central African 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 277 

lake hitherto unkown to Europeans. Conjecture 
soon became certainty. From the 26th to the 
31st of May were spent in the circumnavigation 
of this newly revealed body of water, which 
Stanley named Lake Leopold II. At two o'clock 
on the afternoon of the 31st the En Avant arrived 
once more at the mouth of the Mfini, and the 
survey was completed. Lake Leopold II. covers 
a total area of eight hundred square miles — rather 
smaller then Lake Erie — lies in the midst of a 
delightful climate and country, though so near 
the equator, and is fed by innumerable small 
streams, discharging its waters by means of the 
Mfini into the Congo. 

The natives on the shores of this inland lake 
were paralyzed with terror at the advent of these 
strange beings in their demoniac, hissing, and 
smoke-belching steamer. Here is a ludicrous 
account of the way a party of fishermen were 
surprised in mid -lake, when the En Avant 
approached them in the vain hope of acquiring 
some information. 



278 HENliY M. STANLEY. 

" About ten o'clock, as we were issuing out of 
a long bay-like bight in the shore, we saw half-a- 
dozen small canoes well out in the lake, and one 
probably two miles further out, and after passing 
the rocky point we saw the village to which these 
canoes evidently belonged. I thought this ail 
excellent opportunity to obtain some information 
respecting the country, and perhaps obtain fresh 
fish and food. We bore down upon the fisher- 
men, who, all engrossed in hauling their seines 
aboard, permitted us to approach within a mile of 
them before they were aware of our presence. 
And such a presence as we must have been to 
them ! A large white boat with outspread and 
ample wing, emitting strange noises, which was 
unlike the sounds sent out by any animal they 
had ever heard ! They lift their hands up in 
dismay. One, with more presence of mind than 
the others, claps his hands to his paddle, and 
instinctively skims away. "An admirable idea," 
the others seem to cry, and all strike their paddles 
deep in the black water, and urge their tiny dug- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 279 

outs until they appear to fly over the lake. But 
the other— the canoe all alone in the watery 
waste— in which the fisherman, profoundly 
abstracted in his task, sits heedlessly hauling his 
seines aboard ! When, hark ! what is that ? 
What strange sighing sound, what harsh grating 
and plashing noise, is that ? He turns toward 
our direction and beholds a strange structure, all 
white, with lofty awning, and a pair of revolving 
clappers striking the lake water into long, trailing 
waves behind. He falls sideways into his little 
canoe, completely paralyzed, as if striving to 
realize that the vision is not all a dream. No 
doubt the thought flashes into his mind, "But a 
moment since I swept my eyes around, and saw 
naught strange to inspire fear or anxiety in me. 
But this ! Whence could this have issued ? It 
must be a dream, surely.' 

"But again the gentle wind bears to his ears 
the strong pulsating sounds, and the deep but 
sharp sighing ; he hears the desperate whirl of the 
paddle wheels ; he sees the trail of rolling wavelets 



280 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

astern. Leaping to his feet with frantic energy, 
he takes one short glance around and realizes 
that he, insensate fool, while indulging in Wal- 
tonian reveries in mid-day, has been abandoned 
by his friends ! However, there is hope while 
there is life ; he bends his back, and draws, with 
long-reaching grasp, the water sideways, this 
way and that, and the tiny pirogue, sharp as a 
spear-point, leaps over the water, obeying His will 
dexterously. 

" Nearer and nearer the steamer draws on the 
fugitive, but by a whirl of the paddle the dark 
man shoots at right angles triumphantly away, 
while the En Avant, confused by this sudden 
movement, careers madly along. In a short 
time, however, she is in full chase again, this 
time carefully watching every movement. The 
man has kept throwing wild glances over his 
shoulders ; he observes the monster rapidly gain- 
ing on him, and each time it seems to loom 
larger and larger upon his excited imagination ; 
he hears the tremendous whirr of the wheels and 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 231 

the throbbing of the engines, and the puffing of 
the steam. Another glance, and it seems to be 
overwhelming him, when, * Ach, G-ott !' he 
springs overboard, and we sweep past the empty 
canoe !" 

But not to drown, for the crew of the En Avant 
carefully fish him out, limp with terror, and 
proceed to question him. Between his fright 
and his unfamiliarity with the language spoken 
by Stanley's guides they can make nothing of 
him, save that he takes them for slave-catchers. 
In compensation for his bath and the loss of his 
morning's catch of fish they fill his two hands 
with bright beads, place a dozen bright handker- 
chiefs in his canoe, and then invite him to step in. 
This he did, slowly and carefully, but "did not 
seem to realize that he was a free and a rich 
man until there was such a distance between us 
that he thought it impossible for us to catch him 
again, even if we tried. When he seemed a small 
speck in the lake we saw the figure rise to its 



2S2 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

height, and then we knew that he was conscious 
that his old life had begun again." 

But this voyage of discovery up the Kiva was 
fraught with dire results to Stanley. Ere the 
prow of the En Avant was turned down stream 
on the return its crew were suffering the pangs 
of hunger. But worse than all were the symp- 
toms of a severe sickness which oppressed the 
chief. While Leopold ville w^as yet distant a day's 
steaming Stanley became unconscious, and at 
last was obliged to be carried ashore. A week 
later he decided to return to Vivi, that being the 
sanitarium at which enfeebled Europeans from 
the upper Congo could recover health and 
strength. But on the 28th of June, at Manyanga, 
incipient gastritis made itself felt, with swelling 
of the lower limbs, and to the recent sun-roasting 
on Lake Leopold II. he attributed this illness. 
But the bracing air of Vivi failed to afford the 
desired relief. So, with intense reluctance, Stan- 
ley resolved to proceed to Europe, invalided. His 
work on the Congo was left, as he thought, in 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 2S3 

competent hands, and might be safely deprived 
of its controlling mind for a few months. In 
October, 1882, he arrived in Europe, greatly 
bettered by the sea-voyage, and before many days 
were over had laid before the Committee of the 
Association Internationale du Congo a report of 
the true condition of affairs at the front. 

In brief, the problem now confronting the pro- 
jectors was to secure what had been hitherto 
gained by the toils of the years 1878-1882. 
Frankly, Stanley declared that in its present state 
the Congo Basin was not worth a two-shilling 
piece, and to reduce it to proper order a railway 
must be constructed between the iower and the 
upper Congo. (In the summer of 18S5 a survey- 
ing party of Belgian engineers departed to survey 
both banks of the Congo between Vivi and Stan- 
ley Pool, and this survey, as already stated, 
has been completed.) The cost of such a road 
would be between two and three million dollars. 
To render it even prospectively valuable, he told 
the king and the committee, "You must first 



284 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

have a charter from Europe that you shall be per- 
mitted to build that railroad, that you shall 
govern the land through which it passes, that, in 
short, the guardianship of it shall not pass into 
the hands of any power but yousown." It was 
seen that at first such a road would not only be 
unremunerative, but would entail a large annual 
outlay, and could never become a source of profit 
either to the Association or Africa unless com- 
mercial men and emigrants could be attracted to 
the upper Congo. The members of the Associa- 
tion were unanimously of the same opinion, and 
declared themselves ready to face the further 
enormous outlay, provided Stanley would continue 
in charge of the work. Though shattered in 
health, Stanley consented to return to the Congo 
and complete the establishment of stations as far 
as Stanley Falls, provided an efficient subordinate 
or assistant chief could be found to relieve him of 
all direct concern for the welfare of the stations 
on the lower Congo. The committee engaged to 
find and send such a person, and on these condi- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 285 

tions Stanley arranged to return to the scene of 
his labors at the end of six weeks. 
In the preceding paragraph we have touched 

on a fruitful source of annovance and hinderance 

«/ 

to progress at the scene of action— the, with a few 
bright exceptions, general untrustworthiness of 
those filling subordinate positions in the employ 
of the association. Half-pathetic, half-humorous, 
are the records of incompetency, petty jealousy, 
and absurd bickering among the European staff. 
"The right man in the right place " was a scarce 
commodity on the Congo, and a greater number 
of round pegs in square holes was probably never 
before gathered around an enterprise of such pith 
and moment. Gentlemen accepted service under 
the flag of the Commfttee with the idea, in many 
cases, that hunting big game and flirting with 
dusky maidens were the chief ingredients of life 
in Africa under the equator. The hard work 
attending the ascent of the river and the found- 
ing of stations they had not bargained for, and 
after a taste of the discomforts and dangers such 



286 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

frequently resigned in indignation and disgust. 
But the malingerer was the worst foe to order and 
discipline. Some of these gentry, by unwise 
excesses or by an assumption of wounded dignity 
ill-suited to the mode of life in which they had 
embarked, were often for months an incubus on 
the hands of the chief. Time and again they 
would resign and incontinently quit their posts, 
while Stanley, five hundred miles up the river, 
would receive the first intimation thereof by 
letter when the writer was well on his way to 
Europe. No wonder he thus gives vent to his 
feelings and speaks in plain terms : " These people 
had given me more trouble than all the tribes put 
together. They had inspired such disgust in me 
that I would rather be condemned to be a boot- 
black all my life than to be a dry-nurse to beings 
who had no other claim to manhood than that 
externally they might be pretty pictures of men." 
But much of the ineffectiveness of some Euro- 
peans on the Congo, Stanley thinks, is due simply 
to nostalgia, intensified perhaps by the inhospit- 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STxVTE. 287 

able and austere appearance of the scenery to 
which allusion has been made. Yet it is impos- 
sible to view such ill-timed petulance with much 
indulgence. 

If the want of efficient and trustworthy assist- 
ants had been apparent before Stanley's illness and 
departure for home, their urgent necessity was 
reiterated vvith ten-fold force ere he set foot on 
shore at Vivi on his return to the Congo in Decem- 
ber, 1882. Reports of resignations, desertions, 
and wholesale neglect of duty came pouring in 
from all the stations ; the steamers had been 
allowed to rust at their moorings ; at the upper 
stations the stocks of provisions had been allowed 
to diminish through petty squabbles among the 
various chiefs left in command ; at Leopoldville 
there existed an armed truce between the garrison 
and the natives, and the former were nearly 
reduced to want ; at all a general lack of personal 
responsibility and esprit du corps? And yet but 
six months had elapsed between his departure and 
his return ! However, the salutary influence of 



288 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

his presence was soon felt ; the judicious exercise 
of authority and a little needful tact, tempered 
with a dash of severity, soon restored matters to 
their former condition of decent prosperity. 

These disagreeables settled, and matters placed 
on their former footing, the chief was free to 
enter on the final stage of his Congo labors — the 
planting of a station at Stanley Falls and of 
another one midway between that place and 
Leopoldville. On the 9th day of May, 1S83, a 
little flotilla streamed out into Stanley Pool, con- 
sisting of the steam launches Royal and A. I. A. 
and our old friend the En Avant, the first and last 
named towing the large sixty -foot canoe and the 
steel whale-boat respectively. A force of eighty 
men, with six tons of materiel, consisting of 
every necessary article for the equipment of two 
small stations, and provisions for the garrisons 
for at least six months, loaded all the boats to the 
load-line. Amid the cheers of the garrison at 
Leopoldville the tiny fleet pushes out into the 
stream on its thousand-mile voyage into the 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 289 

real heart of equatorial Africa, carrying the flag 
of the Association to almost the limit of Congo 
navigation. 

On June 13, at a distance of four hundred and 
twelve miles above Leopoldville, and . seven hun- 
dred and fifty-seven miles from the sea, Equator" 
Station was founded, in the Wangate country, at 
0° 1' 0" north latitude. Here a lieutenant and 
twenty-six men were left as a permanent garrison, 
with a further temporary contribution of twenty 
men to assist in building, etc. This is Stanley's 
ideal depot, and though usually anything but 
enthusiastic or optimistic, his account of the 
beauties of its surroundings is radiant. On 
October 16 the flotilla steams out of Equator 
Station for the last six hundred miles of river 
travel separating them from Stanley Falls, making 
verbal treaties with the tribal chiefs en route. 

On November 23 the explorers reached a point 
nine hundred and twenty-one miles above Leopold- 
ville, where they encounter a stretch of country 
on either bank recently devastated by a raid of 



290 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

t 

Arab slave-takers. Smoking villages, decaying 
corpses, and ruined gardens blot one of the fairest 
landscapes. The fiends had harried a country 
exceeding Ireland in area and formerly peopled 
by a happy primitive people numbering over one 
million souls. One hundred and eighteen villages 
had been destroyed for the scant return of about 
two thousand five hundred slaves and two thou- 
sand ivory tusks. The stoppage of this iniquity 
will be one of the beneficent results of the domi- 
nation of all this zone by enlightened Europeans. 

A week later the lower rapids of Stanley Falls 
came into view. They consist in all of seven dis- 
tinct cataracts, spread out along a curvature of 
the river fifty-six miles long, and separated by tw^o 
navigable stretches twenty-two and tw r enty-six 
miles in length respectively. From the highest 
of the Stanley Falls to Nyangwe, where Stanley 
commenced his descent of the Congo, is three 
hundred and eighty-five miles of clear navigation. 

The usual protracted palavers with the natives 
were inevitable, but finally, at a cost of £160 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 291 

worth of goods, the right to settle in the country 
of the Wane Kusari tribe was purchased. Stanley 
chose an island of the same for the site of the 
final station of the association, and because of 
the placid nature of the water between the island 
and the north bank, affording an admirable berth 
for the steamers, the depot was named Still 
Haven. About four acres of ground were 
cleared ; an abundance of tools, food, etc., car- 
ried ashore, and Still Haven was placed in com- 
mand of one Binnie, "a little Scotchman, five 
feet three inches in height," the person whom 
Stanley had carried from the Atlantic to the 
interior to take charge of the station begging at 
the last moment to be returned to the coast ! 
This Ultima Thule of the Congo Expedition was 
reached only one day later — December 1, 1883 — 
than that set down by Stanley to the Committee 
at Brussels. Nothing more could be done in the 
way of station building or trade development 
until the right of protectorate over the districts 
between station and station, from Vivi to Stanley 



292 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Falls, had been obtained by the concert of the 
great Powers. 

The next milestone in the reclamation of the 
Congo Basin was the meeting of the Berlin Con- 
ference in 1884-85, and the constitution thereby 
of the Congo Free State, dominated chiefly by the 
African International Association, though France 
and Portugal possess a princely domain therein. 
We may not close this chapter without a brief 
survey of the area and products and trade pros- 
pects of this new equatorial empire. " To define 
the geographical basin of the Congo, whether 
explored or unexplored," said Mr. Stanley, in an 
address before the conference, " is a very easy mat- 
ter, since every school-boy knows that a river 
basin — geographically speaking — includes all that 
territory drained by the river and its affluents, 
large and small The Congo, unlike many other 
large rivers, has no fluvial delta ; it issues into the 
Atlantic Ocean in one united stream between 
Shark's Point on the south and Banana Point on 
the north, with a breadth of seven miles and an 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 293 

unknown depth. But when you ask me as to what 
I should consider the commercial basin of the 
Congo, I am bound to answer you that the main 
river and its most important affluents constitute 
means by which trade can influence a much larger 
amount of territory than is comprised within the 
geographical basin. To define the commercial 
basin of the Congo is very simple : Commencing 
from the Atlantic Ocean I should follow the line 
of 1° 25' south latitude east as far as 13° 13' long, 
east of Greenwich, and along that meridian north 
until the water-shed of the Niger-Binue is reached ; 
thence easterly along the water-shed separating 
the waters flowing into the Congo from those 
flowing into the Shari, and continuing east along 
the water-parting between the waters of the 
Congo and those of the Nile, and southerly and 
easterly along the water-shed between the waters 
flowing into the Tanganika and those flowing 
into the affluents of Lake Victoria, and still cling- 
ing to the water-shed to the east of the Tanganika 
southerly until the water-parting between the 



294 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

waters flowing into the Zambesi and those flow- 
ing into the Congo is reached ; thence along that 
water-shed westerly until the head- waters of the 
main tributary of the Kiva is reached, whence 
the line runs along the left bank of the Kiva to 
7° 50' south latitude ; thence straight to the Loge 
River, and thence along the left bank of that 
river westerly to the Atlantic Ocean. By this 
delineation you will have comprised the geograph- 
ical or commerical basin and its present com- 
mercial delta." These were substantially the 
boundaries agreed on by the Berlin Conference as 
the limits of the Congo Free State. 

The principal commercial product of the Upper 
Congo is ivory, and it will probably take several 
generations to exhaust the supply. Next in 
importance are palm oil, rubber, orchilla, camwood, 
nutmegs, gum -copal, and wild coffee — all in 
practically unlimited quantities. In the lake 
region are gold, silver, copper, and iron deposits 
— the two latter of surpassing richness. Bananas, 
oranges, and every kind of semi-tropical vegetable 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE 295 

product, as well as many of those of temperate 
zones, thrive amazingly. Spices and gums are 
indigenous, and the timber will repay the most 
expensive transportation. The rich river bottoms 
and the ancient lake basins yield marvelous crops 
of rice and grain ; while there is pasturage for 
many million head of cattle. 

The area of the Congo Basin proper was thus 
divided by the Berlin Conference : 

Sq. M. Pop. 

French Territory .... 62,400 2,121,600 

Portuguese " .... 30,700 276,300 

Unclaimed " ... .349,700 6,910,000 

Free State of the Congo . 1,065,200 12,608,000 



1,508,000 51,886,000 

The total area of the Congo Free State is 
2,400,000 square miles, of which France possesses 
257,000 square miles, Portugal 741,343 square 
miles,, and Great Britain 5,056,000,000 acres. 

European trade with the Congo country has 



296 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

increased very rapidly within the last half decade. 
Exports and imports now amount to many 
millions of dollars annually. In 1882 the annual 
exports from Liverpool were computed at 
$5,000,000 in value. At present nearly the whole 
of the rich Congo trade is controlled by two 
Liverpool companies, one Paris company, one 
Hamburg firm, and a Eotterdam house. 

Finis coronat opus are the appropriate closing 
words of Stanley's thrilling narrative of work 
and exploration on the Congo. The superstruc- 
ture of a new equatorial empire had been laid, and 
yet the only self -gratulation permitted the builder 
was the modest expression of the belief that his 
royal patron was satisfied (as well he might be) 
with the manner in which his intentions had 
been consummated ! Nevertheless, we must not 
allow ourselves to be borne away on a wave-crest 
of enthusiasm by the bright horoscope predicted 
for the empire carved out by these fortuitous 
endeavors. There yet remain many intricate 
problems to be solved and many weighty obstacles 



FOUNDING OF THE CONGO FREE STATE. 297 

to be surmounted ere the roseate dawn of civili- 
zation shall illumine the night of the Dark Conti- 
nent. But scant assistance can be expected from 
its aboriginal peoples, except as they are domina- 
ted and directed by European brain and brawn — 
doubtless these children of the forest would 
infinitely prefer to be left unmolested and en- 
shrouded in their centuries-old Cimmerian gloom 
and ignorance. But Capital is ever alert for a 
new field for conquest, and the reclamation of 
Africa to Commerce and Christianity is simply a 
question of years. Be this result speedy or tardy, 
humanity must unite in according a large meed 
of praise to the men whose philanthropy and 
fortitude rent the veil of mystery and doubt 
which so long enshrouded Congo Land. 



298 HEN11Y M. STANLEY. 



CHAPTEK V. 

EMIN BEY AND THE EQUATORIAL PROVINCES. 

We must now suspend the regular course of our 
narrative to glance for a few pages at the history 
of the man who was the immediate cause of 
Stanley's last journey into the wilds of Africa, and 
incidentally to acquaint ourselves with the great 
empire known as the Equatorial Province. 

In February, 1888, an important volume was 
published in Germany of the letters and journals 
of Emin Pasha during the whole period of his 
administration of the Equatorial Provinces. This 
volume was translated into English, and a perusal 
of its pages shows us how great a man Emin Pasha 
really is : his extraordinary gifts as a scholar and 
a scientific investigator, his powers of administra- 
tion, his conscientiousness, his faithfulness, and 
his marvelous unselfishness. The mantle of G-or- 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 299 

don had indeed fallen on an heroic lieutenant. 
We cannot follow him in the various journeys he 
made throughout the length and breadth of his 
province, nor note the scientific data he was able 
to collect and register ; whenever he was free 
from administrative cares — on the march, in camp, 
or at his headquarters — he devoted his time to 
scientific research. In whatever character we 
view him, we learn to admire his genius, earnest- 
ness and sincerity. 

Emin Pasha was born in Oppeln, in the Prussian 
province of Silesia, on 28th March, 1840. His 
real name is Edward Schnitzer. 

He is of Hebrew parentage. His father died 
when Edward was still in swaddling clothes, and 
his mother then removed to Neisse. At fifteen 
Edward entered college at Neisse, where he carried 
off nearly all the prizes during his term. His 
close application to study almost cost him his 
eyesight, however, and his physician ordered him 
to desist from reading and writing for at least a 
year. He obeyed, and his eyesight became some- 



300 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

what restored. He then visited the universities 
of Breslau, Berlin and Konigsberg, studying 
medicine and paying particular attention to bot- 
any. The latter became a hobby with him. From 
its study came the desire to visit strange lands, 
and especially tropical climates, where unknown 
plants and trees were to be found. He made the 
acquaintance of Ismail Pasha while the latter was 
traveling in Germany. 

After Ismail Pasha's death, Emm married his 
widow, a Grecian woman of great beauty and 
talents. 

He entered the Egyptian service in 1876, and 
was sent as chief medical officer to the Equatorial 
Provinces. Gordon Pasha, who was then gov- 
ernor of the Equatorial Provinces, sent him on 
tours of inspection through the districts that had 
been annexed to Egypt, and employed him on 
several diplomatic missions. Subsequently, in 
1878, a few months after, Gordon was made Gov- 
ernor-General of the region. 

Gordon, on his retirement, left the Equatorial 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 301 

Provinces in a fairly satisfactory state. Colonels 
Prout and Mason, who at first succeeded him, 
remained only a short time ; and the native gov- 
ernors who were then appointed in a few months 
reversed all the beneficial eifects of Gordon's rule ; 
so that when Emin took up the reins of govern- 
ment, the province was in a very bad state. But 
he threw himself into his work with a brave heart. 
In order to sink his Frankish origin and gain " an 
unhampered entrance into the Mohammedan 
world," he had previously assumed the Turkish 
name of Emin— " the faithful ; " he is, however, 
a Turk in name only — a fact that does not appear 
to be sufficiently well known in this country. 
" Don't be afraid ;" says Emin, in a letter to his 
sister; U I have only adopted the name; I have 
not become a Turk." He rapidly introduced law 
and order, extended his province by peaceful 
negotiations with native chiefs, established 
stations and a weekly post, made roads, cultivated 
the soil, and, in a word, built up an independent 
civilized state out of the ruins of a broken pro- 



302 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

vince. Instead of his finances showing a yearly 
deficit, he was able, by the end of 1882, to return 
a handsome surplus to Khartoum, after paying 
his own way. With what patient and honest 
labor he accomplished this result will in time 
become a matter of history. He was met at every 
turn by opposition from his corrupt Egyptian 
colleagues and subordinates ; his applications to 
the central government at Khartoum were either 
unheeded or rejected— at the best, it was months, 
sometimes years, before they were answered. 
What wonder that he cried, "No progress is 
possible until the Equatorial Provinces are sepa- 
rated from the central government at Khartoum !" 
It was able to stand on its own legs, but its 
demoralized guardians weighed it down. 

Then came the insurrection in the Soudan. 
Lupton Bey, the governor of the Bahr-el-Ghazel 
province, was rapidly overwhelmed ; he himself 
was taken prisoner to Khartoum, where he is still 
supposed to be. But Emin, although he was 
obliged to withdraw his garrisons and intrench 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE 303 

himself in his more southerly stations, made a 
brave and successful stand against the Emir 
Keremallah and the Mahdi's followers. Emm's 
letters and journals at this dark period of events 
in the Soudan are most important ; they add to 
the consensus of opinion that is rapidly gaining 
ground that the insurrection of the Mahdists, and 
its rapid success, was the direct result of Egyptian 
misrule and corruption. Had Gordon or Emin 
been in Khartoum at the time of the outbreak, 
they could have crushed the insurrection with a 
handful of loyal troops. 

Surrounded by enemies on all sides, his own 
people disaffected, and hard pushed to find the 
means of existence, Emin Pasha still held loyally 
to his post, and refused the escape offered to him 

The Colonel H. G. Prout, just referred to, is 
known in the Soudan by the Oriental title of 
Baroud Bey. He was with Gordon, and later 
with Emin, and from an article from his pen in a 
late number of Scribner's Magazine, the following- 
facts are condensed : 



30i HENRY M. STANLEY. 

From where the Nile leaves the Victoria Nyan- 
za to the Damietta mouth in the Mediterranean is 
a little over thirty degrees of latitude. The 
distance, in a straight line, is 2,137 miles. As the 
Nile runs it is about 3,300 miles. 

In this 3, 300 miles is found a great diversity of 
climate, topography, and people. That region is 
the most important part of what has been known 
since 1869 as the Provinces of the Equator (El 
Gahat El Khat El Istiwa). It is the region to 
which the authority of the Khedive was first 
carried in 1869 by Sir Samuel Baker ; where 
Gordon did the best of his African work from 
1874 to 1876 ; and where Emin was governor- 
general for twelve years. 

For the first five or six hundred miles of its 
course, from the Victoria Nyanza to a point some- 
where north of Lado, the Nile is known to the 
Arabs as the Bahr-el-Gebel, the Eiver of the 
Mountains. This is the most beautiful part of the 
river. The country is diversified with mountains 
and forests, green hillsides and bright brooks. 



EM1N BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 305 

For stretches of many miles the river is broad and 
slow. In other parts are wooded islands and 
foaming rapids. About half-way between the 
Victoria Nyanza and Lado the Nile flows through 
the northern end of the Albert Nyanza. About 
twenty-five miles above the Albert Lake are the 
Murchison Falls. Below the lake, for more 
than one hundred miles, the stream is broad and 
placid, traversing a comparatively level country 
and always navigable for vessels drawing four or 
five feet. In this part of its course, about forty 
miles below the Albert Lake, it passes Wadelai, 
the headquarters of Emin's government. 

All the country of the Bahr-el-Gebel is habit- 
able, and much of it is quite thickly peopled. 
There are regions, particularly in the country of 
the Moogi, some seventy -five miles south of Lado 
where the straw huts of the negroes shine on the 
grassy slopes for miles like one continuous village. 
Then there are other regions where a village will 
not be seen in a two days' march. 

From some indefinite line north of Lado, but 



306 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

not far north of it, to Khartoum, what we know 
as the Nile is called by the Arabs El Bahr-el-Abiat, 
the White Nile. Going north from Lado, the 
forests and hills gradually disappear, and finally 
even the banks of the river are lost, and from 
about the seventh degree of latitude until after the 
mouth of the Sobat is passed — over three hundred 
miles, as the river runs — its course lies through a 
most heart-breaking land. The desert is cheerful 
compared with the vast swamps of the White 
Nile. The boundaries of the swamp region are 
not accurately known, but Baroud Bey estimates 
the area roughly at twenty-five thousand square 
miles. An occasional hillock breaks the monotony 
of level marsh, and here and there a solitary tree 
is a landmark for many miles. As one sails 
through the flat wilderness of papyrus and tall 
grasses there is no other sign of life than an occa- 
sional aquatic bird, or, more rarely, a hippopota- 
mus, and clouds of ravenous mosquitoes. Gordon, 
whose experience had covered many lands, said 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 307 

that the mosquitoes here were worse even than at 
the mouth of the Danube. 

Throughout this three hundred miles the stream 
is extremely crooked. It is one of the discourag- 
ing features of the journey that after hours of 
sailing one appears to come round again to the 
same place from which he started. It is in this 
part of the White Nile that, from time to time, 
forms the " sudd," that vegetable barrier which 
completely closes the river to navigation. 

The northern frontier of the Provinces of the 
Equator was, in Gordon's time, marked by the 
reach of the Nile running from the mouth of the 
Gazelle Eiver (Bahr-el Ghazal) easterly to the 
Sobat, and the latter stream lay within his gov- 
ernment. In about this latitude the character of 
the country changes. The swamps give place to 
rolling steppes, and in the Shillock country, from 
the bend of the Nile to Fashoda, the land adjacent 
to the river is very thickly peopled. Farther 
north the Bedouin tribes have encroached upon 
the country of the negroes, and the slave-traders 



308 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

have scattered the blacks and driven them south 
or to the interior, and villages are rarely seen. 
The grassy steppes, with occasional forests, con- 
tinue to about the latitude of Khartoum and then 
gradually give place to the desert. Great areas of 
absolute desert are not found, however, until we 
come considerably farther north. From the 
Sobat to the Blue Nile, some four hundred miles, 
there are no affluents other than brooks, carrying 
the drainage of small areas in the rainy season, 
and dry most of the year. In truth it may be 
said that the Nile receives no tributary from the 
west in the last two thousand miles of its course. 

The Nile is the one overwhelming physical fact 
of the whole Egyptian empire. It is the highway 
from province to province, from the capital to the 
equator. It made and sustains the best part of 
Egypt and the Equatorial Provinces. 

The first people met south of the Sobat are the 
Nouer. Then comes the great tribe of the Dinka 
These two tribes cover a great territory, and 
have furnished to the Arabs a vast number of 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 309 

slaves. The regular regiments of the Khedive in 
the Soudan were largely made up of Dinka 
slaves. South of the Dinkas, beginning about lati- 
tude 6°, is the Shir tribe, said by Emin to be a 
division of the Baris. The Bari tribe, with many 
subdivisions, occupies about two degrees of lati- 
tude, and then come the Madi, the Shooli, the 
Lango, and finally the powerful Wanyoro and 
Waganda, who people the countries of Unyoro 
and Uganda, immediately south of the Provinces 
of the Equator. All of these people are heathens, 
w r ith the most rudimentary notions of religion. 
They have their coojoors or magicians, w r ho are 
their only priests, and to whom are attributed 
various superhuman powers. While the other 
men wear no covering, the coojoor usually has a 
skin of some kind hanging down his back. He 
wears curious charms and amulets, and frequently 
carries a gourd rattle, or a horn to blow* upon. 
He often carries a horn filled with dust, or with 
various odds and ends, which is supposed to have 
magical virtues. By his native craft he keeps 



310 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

alive the faith of the people in his magic. He 
controls the weather, and sometimes the fate of 
war. He is, of course, the physician, and 
whether his patient be a cow or a man, the result 
is probably more favorable than it would be if his 
pharmacopoeia were larger. The treatment, so 
far as the duties of the physician go, is ordinarily 
by dances and incantations on his part. 

The rain-maker is often a chief and ruler as 
well, but even then his calling is not always a 
comfortable one. Sometimes, if the crops suffer 
too much for want of rain, he gets killed. 

All of the tribes are village people, and not 
nomadic. They live in huts made with a frame 
of light sticks thatched with straw. These are 
usually cylindrical to a height of three or four 
feet, with a high conical roof. This is the 
universal type of the "tokel" throughout the 
Soudan, far north of the negro country. Of 
course it varies considerably among the negro 
tribes of the south, often being nothing but a low 
hemisphere, and sometimes having the roof pro- 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 311 

jecting and supported by posts to form a low 
veranda around the whole structure. In and 
about the villages are usually numerous " googas " 
for storing grain. These are cylindrical struc- 
tures made of straw wattled in light frames, and 
daubed inside and out with clay. They stand a 
few feet from the ground, on three or four posts, 
and have a cover of thatch. Around the village 
is often, and among the more warlike tribes 
usually, a hedge of thorns, which is called by the 
Arabs a zereba. Against an enemy armed only 
with spears and bows and arrows, this is a very 
efficient fortification. A high hedge of the 
Euphorbia candelabra is often seen instead of the 
thorny zereba. 

Most of the negroes of the upper Nile breed 
cattle, and some of them have great herds. 
These are ordinarily driven at night into zerebas 
near the villages and guarded. Where the mos- 
quitoes are very troublesome fires are lighted in 
the cattle- yards, and a dense smoke is kept up all 
night. The watchmen often sleep in the ashes, 



312 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and turn out in the morning a fine iron gray. 
When one goes up the Bahr-el G-ebel, soon after 
he passes the swamp region, he will be startled, if 
it is his first journey, by the sudden appearance 
on the bank of the stream of a group of these 
gray negroes. Each one carries a spear, and 
probably he stands on his left foot with the 
hollow of the right foot against the inside of the 
left knee. His balance is kept by the spear, 
which is held upright in the right hand, the butt 
resting on the ground. Very likely each man has 
stuck in his hair two short feathers, one standing 
straight up on each side of his head. The trav- 
eler naturally expects to see black negroes, but 
gray ones he is not prepared for. These are 
hardly any more fantastic, however, than the 
bright red ones whom he will meet soon after. 
It is much the fashion with many of the tribes to 
color the whole body with red ochre, or any other 
convenient coloring- matter, mixed with grease. 
Among the Madi it is not uncommon to see a 
man with red legs and a black body, or the 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 313 

reverse ; or perhaps only his head and arms will 
be painted. Of course it is well known that the 
pr&ctice of greasing the body is ancient, and still 
very common in hot countries. In the Egyptian 
Soudan, far north of Khartoum, castor oil is 
made and largely used for this purpose. 

With very few exceptions the men, boys, and 
girls from the Sobat, as far south as Unyoro, are 
seen in the natural state. The men wear rings 
around their arms, ankles, and necks, made of 
iron, copper, ivory, rhinoceros' hide, or serpent's 
skin. Tattooing and painting the face or body 
are little practiced, except the broad style of 
treatment of large surfaces in red before men- 
tioned. In some of the tribes the men insert 
long pieces of quartz or of glass in the lower lip ; 
but such mutilations are by no means universal, 
and are more frequent among the women. Many 
of the Bari and Madi men carry about a small 
stool, which is hung to the left arm by a thong, 
and is almost an article of dress. This stool is 
perhaps four by eight inches on top, and four or 



314 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

five inches high. The top and the four legs are 
all worked out of one piece of wood. Beads are 
worn by both sexes as necklaces, armlets, girdles, 
or in other ways. 

The costume and ornaments of the women do 
not differ greatly from those of the men. In- 
variably, however, or almost invariably, they 
wear a small apron, or what is considered its 
equivalent, in a bunch of green leaves. This apron 
may be made of a strip of cotton, or of strings 
twisted from the bark of trees, or spun from 
wool. Sometimes iron beads made by native 
smiths are woven in with the bast or woolen 
strings. Among various tribes it is the custom 
for married women to wear a tail. This is made 
of loose strings, perhaps two feet long, thinner 
and shorter than a horse's tail, but still quite a 
substantial brush. There is no other article of 
dress or ornament so grotesque and perpetually 
amusing as this appendage. It seems to grow 
naturally from the person, and when the wearer 
is in lively motion her flaunting tail is most 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 315 

expressive. This custom explains at once the 
ancient legends of people with tails, which are 
still current all over Africa. 

Throughout the great area included in the 
Equatorial Provinces the tribes are all finer 
people than the West Coast negro whom we see 
in America. The head is higher, the face less 
prognathous, the features more agreeable, and 
the limbs more svmmetrical, and muscled well 
down to the extremities. The long heel and 
crooked shin which we consider characteristic of 
the true negro, do not belong to the negro of the 
upper Nile. 

All of these people are armed with spears, and 
many of them carry bows and arrows as well. 
Shields are by no means universal. Such of the 
tribes in the immediate vicinity of the Nile as 
carry no shields seem to dread the shields of the 
Makraka warriors from the west, the occasional 
allies of the troops of the Provinces, quite 
as much as they fear their fierce courage and 
reputed cannibalism. The arrows particularly are 



316 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

often fiendishly contrived to lacerate terribly, and 
to be withdrawn only by free cutting. Poisoned 
spears and arrows are also used. 

Cattle are the most valuable property. They 
are not killed for food, but the milk is used. 
Stealing other people's herds and keeping one's own 
from being stolen are constant cares. Cattle raids 
are the most frequent causes of fights between 
tribes. For many years the slave-traders have 
allied themselves with one chief after another to 
attack his neighbors. When the raiders are suc- 
cessful the women and children are carried off for 
slaves, the cattle for barter and to feed the slave- 
trader's stations, and the ivory to be sent to the 
Khartoum market. This predatory warfare goes 
on constantly in the regions much frequented by 
the Arab slave-traders. In other regions it is less 
general. 

Beans of two or three kinds, tobacco, sesame, 
and several other crops are grown to a greater or 
less extent in all the country south of latitude 6° 
N. Poultry, the common barnyard fowl, is found 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 317 

very commonly in all the villages. A few sheep 
and goats are also kept. The grain crop furnishes 
mnch the most important part of the food of the 
people. Milk, poultry, the vegetables already 
mentioned, and such game as they manage to 
secure, supply the rest ; although the white ant, 
which can hardly be called game or poultry, 
should not be forgotten. Throughout great 
regions these insects are eaten at certain seasons 
of the year. They are collected at night by 
people who light fires near the ant-hills, to attract 
the males, which swarm out and are gathered up 
and roasted and stored away for a time or are 
eaten raw. 

The great quantity of game, small and large, in 
all the upper Nile country, is sufficient evidence 
that the natives are but moderately good hunters. 
Elephants are found everywhere in the country of 
which we write, but their numbers vary in differ- 
ent regions. There are not many of them left 
just about Lado and Gondokoro, although in 
Gordon's time a small herd swam the river one 



318 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

night at that place, climbed the steep bank in front 
of his house, and charged through the enclosure, 
overturning banana trees and huts, and making 
considerable excitement. Wild boars are occa- 
sionally met with. Gordon killed one with a 
revolver as it was crossing the trail by which he 
was traveling from station to station. They are 
not very common. Lions, leopards, cheetah cats, 
giraffes, and several other varieties of antelopes, 
are all found in greater or less numbers in many 
parts of the Provinces. Hippopotamuses and 
crocodiles abound everywhere in the White Nile 
and Bahr-el-Gebel. Crocodiles frequent the same 
locality, having found it a good hunting-ground. 
The country and the people here briefly 
described were suddenly brought to the knowl- 
edge of the civilized world by Speke, Grant, and 
Baker, from twenty to twenty-five years ago. 
Before that time but little was known about them 
except to the traders of Khartoum, and even they 
had but very inaccurate notions of much of the 
country. Fortunes were made, however, in the 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 319 

slave and ivory trade with those regions. Ismail 
Pasha, the fifth viceroy of Egypt, and the first to 
bear the title of Khedive, succeeded to the rule in 
1863, at the age of thirty-three. He is the son of 
Ibrahim, and the grandson of the great Moham- 
med Ali. He and his father and grandfather 
were not only the ablest men of their dynasty, 
but would have been men of great ability and 
power in any time and place. There is no doubt 
that Ismail's ambition was to establish a great 
Nile empire, and to make it independent of 
Turkey. There is little doubt that he would have 
succeeded in getting his independence, as Moham- 
med Ali and Ibrahim would have done before 
him, if the European Powers had not pre- 
vented it. In the development of his ambitious 
projects Ismail undertook the subjugation of the 
countries in the upper Nile basin, and in 1876 his 
forces conquered Darfour. Some years before 
this, Ismail had turned his attention to the White 
Nile, and in 1869 he placed Sir Samuel White 
Baker in command of a great expedition, " organ- 



320 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ized to subdue to our authority the countries 
situated to the south of Gondokoro." Other 
specified objects of this expedition were to sup- 
press the slave trade, to introduce legitimate 
commerce, and to open to navigation the great 
lakes of the equator. 

In February, 1874, Gordon arrived in Cairo to 
take command of the Equatorial Provinces. 
He was then forty-one years old, a colonel of 
Royal Engineers in the English army, and had 
made his name immortal as "Chinese Gordon." 
Although he was already a man of high distinc- 
tion, and had come to take a position of great 
power and some honor, nothing could be simpler 
or less ostentatious than his appearance and 
manners. He was rather under than over 
medium height, of well-proportioned figure, by no 
means heavy, but muscular and vigorous in all 
his movements. His hair was brown, and curled 
rather closely. His complexion was ruddy. He 
wore a short mustache and small whiskers, and 
shaved as carefully when he was in the heart of 



EM1N BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 321 

Africa as when he was in London. His mouth 
was resolute, but full of humor. His smile was 
quick, and his whole expression was kind, bright, 
and ready, but absolutely self-reliant. Only a dull 
person could fail to see that here was a man who 
had nothing to ask or to fear. His most striking 
feature was his eyes. These were bright blue, 
and the blue and white were of that pure 
unclouded quality that one sees only in the eyes 
of a baby. Only a baby's eyes could be so direct 
and sincere. You felt that they looked right into 
your soul and laid bare your motives. 

He reached Khartoum March 14th, left there 
March 22nd, and April 16th was at Gondokoro. 
October 6, 1876, two years and a-half later, he left 
Lado finally and forever. The work done in 
those two and a half years has been briefly and 
adequately told by various writers. Much the 
best account of it is to be found in Gordon's 
letters, and on them no one who wishes to tell the 
story can improve. 

When Gordon reached his Province he found 



322 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

three stations occupied — Gondokoro ; Fatiko, 
some one hundred and sixty miles south ; and 
Foweira, about seventy miles farther south. 
When he gave up the government he had a chain 
of stations established from Lado to Mrooli in the 
south, three hundred and sixty miles, at easy 
stages. Communication between all of these 
stations was regular, and between those on the 
upper Nile it was safe and frequent. Generally 
one man could go from station to station with no 
risk. From one end to the other of the Provinces 
there was peace with the negroes. Ferries had 
been established at crossings of the larger streams, 
and at one or two points on ths Nile. Eegular 
communication was kept up with Khartoum, and 
wood stations for the steamers were established 
at convenient intervals. The journey could be 
made easily in sixteen days up and eight days 
down. A twin-screw steamer and two steel life- 
boats had been transported to Dufili, erected there, 
and were available for communication with the 
Albert Lake and the stations above. Another 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 323 

steamer had been hauled up to Moogi and taken 
to pieces, and the sections were lying there ready 
for transportation to Dufili or elsewhere. It was 
perfectly practicable to assemble several thousand 
porters, for this or other work, on short notice. 
The soldiers in the garrisons were paid, clothed, 
and fed with tolerable regularity, and were subor- 
dinate and generally contented. The debt of the 
Provinces was being paid off by the surplus 
revenue from the sale of ivory. Above all, the 
chiefs and natives throughout the whole land 
knew Gordon, and feared him and trusted him, so 
far as a savage can trust any one. 

This is a very brief statement of what Gordon 
had done ; and he had done it alone. 

Death, disease, and the process of eliminating 
the tricky and the worthless, shortly left the 
Provinces under Gordon with a personnel which 
remained practically unchanged under Emm. 

The legacy which Gordon left for his successor 
was to keep the frontiers from the encroachment 
of the Soudan government ; to maintain the 



321 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

discipline and order already established ; to im- 
prove the routes of communication ; to introduce 
some other means of land transportation than 
porters ; to solidify and extend the position of the 
Provinces to the west, and to bring King Kaba 
Kega, of Unyoro, and King Mtesa, of Uganda, 
into such a position of acknowledged dependence, 
that trade, instead of going to Zanzibar, would be 
turned down the Nile. It was not proposed to 
annex these countries, but to convince their 
rulers that they would be annexed if they did not 
behave themselves. The first step was to get a 
steamer afloat on the Nile above Foweira. 
From the Albert Nyanza to that point the river 
is not navigable. At Moogi was lying a steamer 
ninety feet long, of about twenty tons. The 
engine and boiler were carried on the heads of 
men. In this work over two thousand men were 
employed. Many of them were from the sur- 
rounding country, and a valuable contingent 
came from the Makraka country in the west. 
The difficulty in this part of the work was simply 



EMIN BEY AND HIS PROVINCE. 325 

in getting and keeping the porters. The boiler 
was a harder problem. This must be transported 
entire, and one water-course of considerable size 
must be crossed. The others could be headed, or 
crossed where they were very small, by keeping 
well up on the slopes. The boiler was mounted 
on skids, or runners, made of tree trunks, and 
hauled by a couple of hundred men. These 
fellows learned to stop and start at the sound of a 
bugle, but a coojoor was a necessary assistant. 
He marched by the boiler, and w r hen the starting 
signal sounded he threw dust in the air, blew a 
blast on a horn, and beat the boiler vigorously 
with a stick, and away went the procession on 
the wings of magic. This steamer was afterward 
erected at Dufili, and was for years regularly rail- 
ing there in Emin's service. 

In 1878 Emin was made Governor-General of 
the Provinces of the Equator. Then came the 
Mahdrs rebellion, which so entirely shut Emin 
off from the Soudan that for months he knew 
less of what was going on there than was known 



326 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

in the United States. His only communication 
with the outside world was by infrequent letters 
through Zanzibar. The Mahdi's men threatened 
Emin in his own provinces. He withdrew to 
Wadelai, Lado and the lower stations being open 
to attack by parties coming up the river. His 
Danagla in the outlying stations revolted and 
gave in their allegiance to the Mahdi. The 
negroes about Lado and farther north, the Bari 
and Dinka, who had received from Gordon and 
Emin only the kindest treatment, and had been 
relieved by them from the scourge of the slavers, 
repeatedly attacked his garrisons at Lado and 
Eejaf. The minds of his officers and men were 
filled with fear and confusion. For a long time 
they refused to believe that Egypt had lost the 
Soudan. Their isolation made it impossible to 
replenish their stock of ammunition and cloth, 
but they did not suffer for food, and accumulated 
a vast store of ivory, which was perforce left 
behind when Emin and Stanley took up the 
march for the coast. 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 327 



CHAPTER VI. 

STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 

Up to within two years ago the name of Emin 
Pasha was unfamiliar to the public. He, how- 
ever, was not without friends in Europe, and his 
scientific work had for many years enriched the 
transactions of several societies ; but for a period 
of about three years no communication had been 
received from him : he was entirely cut off from 
intercourse with the outer world. Dr. Robert W. 
Feikin, of Edinburgh, was the first to hear of his 
critical position. In the letters he received from 
Emin an urgent appeal for help was made. 
Emin, according to these letters, was almost 
entirely without resources. The Royal Scottish 
Geographical society at once took the matter up, 
and petitioned the English Goverment either to 
send out an expedition for his relief or to assist 



328 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the society in despatching one. The society, 
moreover, took every step to give publicity to the 
position of Emin Pasha ; and in a very short 
space of time the name and the deeds of Emin 
were world-known. In the meantime a private 
syndicate of gentlemen in London obtained the 
consent and assistance of the Goverment to 
organize an expedition for the relief of Emin 
Pasha, and the grant of the Egyptian Govern- 
ment was placed at its disposal. Stanley was 
chosen as the leader of the expedition, and its 
organization was rapidly completed. 

The question of routes was for some time a 
matter of public debate. The Royal Scottish Geo- 
graphical Society at once recommended an East 
Coast route as the best and surest, and their 
recommendation received the support of all ex- 
perts. Stanley himself was inclined to prefer an 
East Coast route ; but his better judgment— or 
perhaps his peculiar position — was overruled by 
the King of the Belgians, who offered to place all 
the resources of the Cougo Independent State at 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 329 

his disposal if the expedition went by way of the 
Congo. King Leopold's wish was, of course, 
equivalent to a command, and, at the last moment 
(in spite of the delay it occasioned), the Congo 
route was definitely selected. 

The story of Stanley's last journey across the 
Dark Continent is one of the most thrilling ever 
penned, and Stanley alone has the right to tell it 
to the world in full. But we can give a resume 
of his journey ings, mostly compiled from his own 
letters, and from the reports that have reached 
us from the Congo and the Aruwimi, that will 
show the magnificence of the work accomplished 
and the dangers which the gallant explorer passed 
through. 

The journey just brought successfully to a con- 
clusion, after nearly three years' absence from 
civilization, will rank in many ways as the 
greatest ever made by any African explorer. 
Time and time again Stanley was reported dead. 
Deserters from his little army brought to the 
posts on the Congo, and slave-dealers carried to 



330 HENRY M. STANLEY, 

Zanzibar, the rumors that he had been betrayed 
by his men and slain. But, as usual with him, 
he turned up again all right. 

For months the world was left in doubt as to 
where he was, and for months he was supposed to 
be that mysterious personage known to modern 
African history as " the White Pasha," who, 
with a few hundred followers, was forcing his 
way north w r ard though the Bahr-el-Ghazel country 
and fighting off the advance forces of the Mahdi's 
hordes. The mystery of "the White Pasha" is 
still unsolved, and doubtless Stanley brings with 
him the solution, since it appears to be certain 
that after joining forces with Emin he fought 
several hard battles with the Mahdi and captured 
one of the Prophet's most treasured standards. 
One of the most persistent rumors was to the 
effect that both he and Emin had been taken 
prisoners at Wadelai. For two years, in fact, 
Stanley's probable fate was a subject that inter- 
ested the entire civilized world. 

It was while just beginning a lecture tour in 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 331 

this country in the winter of 1886 that Stanley 
received the imperative summons to seek out 
Emin Bey, supply him with ammunition and ne- 
cessaries, and, if required, to bring him back. At 
the time we write of, it was known that the 
Mahdists were pressing Emin hard ; that he was 
struggling heroically against odds, refusing to 
abandon his post, as he might easily have done, 
and that to hold his own he must have aid. 
Stanley at once accepted the task assigned him, 
proceeded to Cairo, where he was told by the 
Khedive that Emin could expect no aid from the 
Egyptain Government, and hurried on to Zanzi- 
bar, on the East Coast, where he organized his 
expedition and chose his course. Rejecting three 
possible routes from the East Coast into the 
interior (one being that by which he returned), 
he sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to the 
West Coast, to ascend the Congo River, passing 
through the great country which his former 
joyrneys had opened up to civilization, pushing 
eastward from Stanley Falls. This course carried 



332 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

him into the Aruwimi Eiver country, through 
dense forests and hitherto unexplored country. 
It is thought by many that it was this very fact, 
and the desire of adding new territory to the map 
of known Africa, which induced the adoption of 
this route. The reason given, however, was that 
the Aruwimi Eiver would afford water convey- 
ance for his heavy baggage for a great distance. 

Before proceeding to the west coast Stanley 
engaged a body of trained natives as porters at 
Zanzibar ; and there, too, he made an agreement 
with the great slave-trading chief, Tippoo Tib, on 
whom he conferred the dignity of Governor of 
Stanley Falls, securing a promise of his assistance 
to the expedition. The Congo route would have 
been quite impractical, however, with such a mass 
of stores as Stanley had to convey, but for the help 
of the King of the Belgians, who, as sovereign of 
the Free State, placed the whole resources of 
that body at the disposal of the expedition, and 
gave them use of the steam vessels which kept *p 
communication on the river. This example was 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE 333 

followed by the various missionary societies, and 
by the American Trading Company under Mr. 
Sandford, who also lent their vessel, the Florida, 
although at the time without engines, to be used 
as a cargo boat. The expedition left Zanzibar in 
the end of February, 1887, landing at the mouth 
of the Congo on the 18th of March. Stanley had 
about seven hundred men with him, and was 
some one thousand two hundred and fifty miles 
from the mouth of the Aruwimi, where his over- 
land march was to begin. 

The expedition disembarked from the steamship 
Madeira, at Banana Point, March 18, and left the 
following day in river boats, reaching Matada on 
the 21st. It was not until April 26th that it was 
enabled to leave Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, 
and it was not until the second week in June that 
it reached the Aruwimi, much delay having been 
caused by defective means of transportation and 
a scarcity of provisions. The flotilla consisted of 
the steamer Stanley, towing the Florida; the 
Henry Eeid, towing the En Avant ; and the 



334 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Advance (Stanley's steel boat) and the Peace, tow- 
ing two whale boats. The Stanley was then sent 
back to Kouamenda to bring up Major Barttelot 
and Dr. Parke's party to Bolobo. Mr. Stanley 
and the main body proceeded to the Aruwimi 
River, and disembarked at Yambuga village on 
the 19th of June. The Henry Reid, with Major 
Barttelot and Mr. Walker, proceeded in charge of 
Tippoo Tib's party to Stanley Falls, five days' 
steaming from the Aruwimi River. At Yambuga, 
Stanley proposed to wait for re-enforcements, 
which he had arranged that Tippoo Tib should 
send him from Stanley Falls. He delayed there 
several days, but Tippoo Tib failed to come up to 
his contract. It is possible that he was unable to 
do so, as the natives all around the Falls were in 
revolt against the Arab slave-traders, of whom he 
was the chief. Stanley himself passed up the 
Aruwimi as far as Yambuga without meeting 
hostilities on the part of the natives, though they 
fled on his approach, thinking that he was the 
leader of a new slave-raiding horde. Tippoo's 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 335 

supposed treachery caused some alarm for Stan- 
ley's safety at the time. It was known that he 
should have been able to command the principal 
routes from the Congo to Wadelai. He had 
agreed to furnish six hundred carriers at $30 a 
man, and he was to be paid for them out of 
Emin's stock of ivory, of which Dr. Junker had 
reported there was about seventy-five tons at 
Wadelai, and this Tippoo's men were to transport 
to the coast. 

The " Tippoo Tib" above alluded to is rather a 
remarkable old gentleman. His real name is 
Hamid Ben Mohammed, his noun de guerre being 
a phonetic effort on the part of the natives. Tip- 
poo has a pleasing way of going round in the early 
morning surprising peaceful villages where ivory 
is reported to be stored and pegging away with 
his rifles. The natives used to say that the sound 
of his gun was like " Tip, Tip, Tip," hence they 
called him u Tip, Tip," which Europeans rendered 
into the now famous Tippoo Tib. Tippoo is as 
wealthy as he is rapacious. 



336 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Stanley's acquaintance with these Arab slave- 
traders began early. They are the curse of 
Equatorial Africa. 

"A few years ago," says Henry Drummond, 
"the well-known German explorer, Captain 
Wissmann found himself within a few degrees of 
the equator, in the heart of Africa. It was a 
region of great beauty and fertility, with forests 
and rivers, and great and many-peopled towns. 
The inhabitants were quiet and peaceable, and 
lived a life of artless simplicity and happiness. 
For generations they had been established there ; 
they grew many fruits in their gardens, and 
excelled in the manufacture of cloth, pottery, 
ironware, and wood-carving. No Arab slaver 
had ever visited this country. Within its borders 
the very report of a gun had never once been 
heard. But as the explorer walked among the 
palm trees and met the kindly eyes of the country 
people who came to gaze upon the white man, 
his heart sank. This Arcadia could not last. He 
knew, from what had happened in adjacent dis- 




IS 



o 
fa 
fa 

H 
O 

1/2 

fa 

H 

K/3 

o 

I— t 

o 

w 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 339 

tricts, from what happens every day in Africa, 
that its fate was sealed." 

And the sequel showed too clearly that his 
silent prophecy was right. Four years passed. 
The same traveler led his caravan once more across 
this sylvan country. "As we approached the 
villages we wondered that no one came out to 
receive us with rejoicings, that no merry laughter 
greeted our ears. We entered the deep shade of 
the mighty palms, and to the right and left were 
the clearings where our friends had stood. Tall 
grass had overgrown all that formerly gladdened 
us. The crops were destroyed ; everything was 
laid waste. The silence of death breathes over the 
lofty crowns of the palms waving in the wind. 
We enter, and it is in vain we look for the happy 
homesteads and erst peaceful scenes. A charred 
pole here and there, a few banana trees, are the 
only evidences that man once dwelt here. 
Bleached skulls by the road-side, and the skele- 
tons of human hands attached to poles, tell the 
story of what has happened since our last visit." 



340 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Some wretched fugitives from them supplied the 
missing links in the story. "People with long 
white shirts and wearing cloth round their heads 
(the Arabs) had been there with their chief, who 
was called Tippoo Tib. He at first came to trade, 
then he had stolen and carried away the women. 
Those who had opposed him had been cut down 
or shot, and the greater part of the natives had 
fled to the ravines and forests. The Arabs had 
remained in the place in force as long as there 
was any chance of hunting and finally capturing 
the fugitives in the woods. What they could not 
utilize they had destroyed or set fire to — in a 
word, everything had been laid waste. Then 
they passed on. The fugitives had returned to 
their former homes, and had endeavored to culti- 
vate and renew their fields, and rebuild what was 
possible. After three months Tippoo Tib's hordes 
had again appeared, and the same scenes had 
been re-enacted, and again, for a third time, three 
months later. Famine and the greatest misery 
had been thereby produced throughout all the 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 341 

country of the Beneki. A few of the fugitives 
escaped to the West, but only an imperceptibly 
small number. 

It has been truly said that, if a traveler lost the 
way leading from Equatorial Africa to the towns 
where slaves are sold, he could easily find it again 
by the skeletons of the negroes with which it is 
strewed. 

Cardinal Lavigerie, as Archbishop of Algiers, 
knows Africa personally. As Roman Catholic 
Primate of Africa, he is in ceaseless communica- 
tion with the missionaries of his Church in the 
Sahara region, the Upper Congo, and the Great 
Lakes from the south of Tanganika to the sources 
of the Nile. " Our missionaries at Tanganika 
write to us," he says, " that there is not a single 
day in which they do not see pass caravans of 
slaves which have been brought from afar as 
carriers for the ivory, or from the markets of the 
interior, like human cattle. Never, in any part 
of the known world, or in pages of its history, 
has there been such butchery and murder, and 



342 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

such contempt for human life. Already millions 
of human beings have thus been murdered during 
the last quarter of a century, but the numbers 
increase continually, and on the high plateaux of 
the interior the figures given by our missionaries 
surpass those given by Cameron for the slave- 
trade of the Zambesi and Nyassa." 

Here is a leaf from Stanley's own experience, 
during the exploration of the Congo : 

"Our guide, Yumbila, was told to question 
them as to what was the cause of this dismal 
scene, and an old man stood out and poured forth 
his tale of grief and woe with an exceeding volu- 
bility. He told of a sudden and unexpected 
invasion of their village by a host of leaping, yell- 
ing men in the darkness, who dinned their ears 
with murderous fusillades, slaughtering their 
people as they sprang out of their burning huts 
into the light of the flames. Not a third of the 
men had escaped ; the larger number of the 
women and children had been captured and taken 
away, they knew not whither. We discovered 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 343 

that this horde of banditti — for in reality and 
without disguise they were nothing else — was 
under the leadership of several chiefs, but princi- 
pally under Karema and Kibunga. They had 
started sixteen months previously from Wane- 
Kirundu, about thirty miles below Vinya-Njara. 
For eleven months the band had been raiding suc- 
cessfully between the Congo and the Lubiranzi, 
on the left bank. They had then undertaken to 
perform the same cruel work between the Biyerre 
and Wane-Kirundu. On looking at my map I find 
that such a territory within the area described 
would cover superficially 16,200 square geographi- 
cal miles on the left bank, and 10,500 miles on the 
right, all of which in statute mileage would be 
equal to 34,700 square miles, just 2,000 square 
miles greater than the area of Ireland, inhabited 
by about one million people. The band when it 
set out from Kirundu numbered three hundred 
fighting men, armed with flint-locks, double- 
barrelled percussion-guns, and a few breech- 
loaders ; their followers, or domestic slaves and 



344 HENRY M. STANLEY 

women, doubled this force . . . Within the en- 
closure was a series of low sheds extending many 
lines deep from the immediate edge of the clay 
bank island, one hundred yards ; in length the 
camp was about three hundred yards ; at the 
landing-place below were fifty-four long canoes, 
varying in carrying capacity. Each might convey 
from ten to one hundred people. The first general 
impressions are that the camp is much too densely 
peopled for comfort. There are rows upon rows 
of dark nakedness, relieved here and there by the 
white dresses of the captors. There are lines or 
groups of naked forms — upright, standing, or 
moving about listlessly ; naked bodies are stretched 
under the sheds in all positions ; naked legs 
innumerable are seen in the perspective of pros- 
trate sleepers ; there are countless naked children 
— many mere infants — forms of boyhood and 
girlhood, and occasionally a drove of absolutely 
naked old women bending under a basket of fuel, 
or cassava-tubers, or bananas, who are driven 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 345 

through the moving groups by two or three mus- 
keteers. 

On paying more attention to details, I observe 
that mostly all are fettered ; youths with iron 
rings around their necks, through which a chain, 
like one of our boat anchor-chains, is rove, secur- 
ing the captives by twenties. The children over 
ten are secured by these copper rings, each ringed 
leg brought together by the central ring, which 
accounts for the apparent listlessness of move- 
ment I observed on first coming in presence of 
this curious scene. The mothers are secured by 
shorter chains, around whom their respective 
progeny of infants are grouped, hiding the cruel 
iron links that fall in loops or festoons on their 
mothers' breasts. There is not an adult man cap- 
tive among them. The slave-traders admit they 
have only 2,300 captives in this fold, yet they have 
raided through the length and breadth of a country 
larger than Ireland, bringing fire and spreading 
carnage with lead and iron. Both banks of the 
river show that one hundred and eighteen villages 



346 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and forty-three districts have been devastated, 
out of which is only educed this scanty profit of 
2,300 females and children, and about 2,000 tusks 
of ivory ! The spears, swords, bows and the 
quivers of arrows show that many adults have 
fallen. Given that one hundred and eighteen 
villages were peopled by only 1,000 each, we have 
only a profit of two per cent, and by the time all 
these captives have been subjected to the acci- 
dents of the river voyage to Kirundu and Nangwe, 
of camp-life and its harsh miseries, to the havoc 
of small-pox, and the pests which miseries breed, 
there will only remain a scant one per cent, upon 
the bloody venture. They tell me, however, that 
the convoys already arrived at Nyangwe with 
slaves captured in the interior have been as great 
as their present band. Five expeditions have 
come and gone with their booty of ivory and 
slaves, and these five expeditions have now com- 
pletely weeded the large territory described above. 
If each expedition has been as successful as this 
the slave-traders have been enabled to obtain 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 347 

5,000 women and children safe to Nyangwe, 
Kirundu, and Vibondo, above the Stanley Falls. 
This 5,000 out of an annual million will be at the 
rate of a half per cent., or five slaves out of 1,000 
people. This is poor profit out of such large waste 
of life, for, originally, we assume the slaves to 
have mustered about ten thousand in number. 
To obtain the 2,300 slaves out of the one hundred 
and eighteen villages they must have shot a round 
number of 2,500 people, while 1,300 men died by 
the wayside through scant provisions and the 
intensity of their hopeless wretchedness. How 
many are wounded and die in the forest or droop 
to death through an overwhelming sense of their 
calamities we do not know ; but if the above 
figures are trustworthy, then the outcome from 
the territory with its million of souls is 5,000 
slaves, obtained at the cruel expense of 33,000 
lives ! And such slaves ! They are females or 
young children who cannot run away, or who 
with youthful indifference will soon forget the 
terrors of their capture ! Yet each of the very 



348 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

smallest infants has cost the life of a father, and 
perhaps his three stout brothers and three grown- 
up daughters. An entire family of six souls have 
been done to death to obtain that small, feeble, 
useless child ! These are my thoughts as I look 
upon the horrible scene. Every second during 
which I regard them the clink of fetters and 
chains strikes upon my ears. My eyes catch sight 
of that continual lifting of the hand to ease the 
neck in the collar, or as it displays a manacle 
exposed through a muscle being irritated by its 
weight or want of fitness. My nerves are 
offended with the rancid effluvium of the un- 
washed herds within this human kennel. The 
smell of other abominations annoy me in that 
vitiated atmosphere For how could poor people, 
bound and riveted together by twenties, do other- 
wise than wallow in filth ? Only the old women 
are taken out to forage. They dig out the cassava 
tubers and search for the banana ; while the 
guard, with musket ready, keenly watches for 
the coming of the revengeful native. Not much 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 349 

food can be procured in this manner, and what is 
obtained is flung down in a heap before each gang 
to at once cause an unseemly scramble. Many 
of these poor things have been already months 
fettered in this manner, and their bones stand out 
in bold relief in the attenuated skin which hangs 
down in thin wrinkles and puckers." 

Stanley started from Yambuga Eapids on the 
Aruwimi, on June 28, 1887. He had with him 
about three hundred men, including four English 
assistants. He carried a large supply of goods 
for Emin, and ammunition. He had a company 
of two hundred armed Zanzibaris, and in his 
portable whale-boat had a repeating Maxim gun. 
He expected to take a course nearly due east to 
the southern end of the Albert Nyanza first, in 
the hope that he might find Emin on one of his 
scientific expeditions sojourning on the lake. 
Before leaving Yambuga he left Major Barttelot 
in charge of a fortified camp there with a force of 
two hundred and forty-six men, with orders to 
wait for the arrival of Tippoo Tib's re-enforce- 



350 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ments, and with them to follow his line of march, 
bringing the rest of the ammunition and stores. 
The tragic fate of the leaders of this camp has 
been too often told to need repeating here. 
Stanley went on, proceeding slowly, hoping that 
Barttelot would overtake him. One of his 
carriers, returning to Yambuga, reported that he 
had left Stanley eighteen days' march east of 
Yambuga, at a river flowing -north into the Aru- 
wimi, and that all the members of the expedition 
were well. This information, which reported his 
progress up to July 15, was the last news received 
from the explorers for many months. Then 
came the rumors that disaster had overtaken the 
expedition. 

A few deserters reached Yambuga in the 
following June, whose reports gave rise to 
numerous views of Stanley's safety. One such 
report read: " Several deserters from Stanley's 
expedition have reached Camp Yambuga. They 
say that after traversing the Upper Aruwimi 
Stanley struck into a rough, mountainous coun- 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 35 1 

try, covered with dense forests. The natives, 
who were excited by reports spread by the Arabs, 
disputed the passage of the expedition, and there 
was continuous fighting. Stanley was severely 
wounded by an arrow. He was compelled several 
times to construct camps in order to repel attacks, 
and was obliged to use the reserve provisions that 
were intended for Emin Pasha. The Soudanese 
attached to the force had all died or disappeared. 
The deserters estimate that the caravan lost one- 
third of its men, and they say that many of those 
remaining were ill, including the Europeans. 
Stanley was encamped when the deserters left. 
He was surrounded by hostiles, and he was unable 
to send news to Emin Pasha or directly to Yam- 
buga." 

Before that, indeed, reports had reached the 
world, via Zanzibar, that Stanley had been mas- 
sacred by natives after having been deserted by 
his own people. The news, however, turned out 
to be false. It is useless to recount all the rumors 
that came from Africa while the explorer was 



352 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

making his way across the three or four hundred 
miles of unknown territory between the Yambuga 
and the Albert Nyanza, and while the world was 
being startled by the news of the deaths of Bartte- 
lot and Jamieson and the breaking up of the 
Aruwimi camp. 

Finally, after months of anxious waiting, Stan- 
ley was heard from, after passing through months 
of a journey overland, during which he had to 
cut his way through dense forests, whose hideous 
gloom almost drove him mad, and on many occa- 
sions to fight his way step by step among hostile 
tribes. Stanley's advance column followed the 
left bank of the Aruwimi, as will be seen by the 
chart at pages 337, 338. 

On October 18, the expedition entered a settle- 
ment occupied by Kilingasongas, a Zanzibar slave, 
belonging to Abed-bin- Salim, an old Arab, whose 
bloody deeds are recorded in the Congo and the 
Founding of the Free State. 

At Kilingasongas', Stanley came to the country 
of a powerful chief, Mazamboni. His villages 



STANLEY TO THE EESCUE. 353 

were scattered over a great extent of country so 
thickly that there was no other road except 
through his villages or fields. " From a long dis- 
tance the natives sighted us and were prepared. 
The war cries were terrible from hill to hill, peal- 
ing across intervening valleys. People gathered 
by hundreds from every point ; war horns and 
drums announced that a struggle was about to 
take place. Such natives as were too bold we 
checked with little effort. A slight skirmish ended 
in our capturing a cow, the first fresh beef we 
had tasted since we left the ocean. Night passed 
peacefully, both sides preparing for the morrow. 
On the morning of the 10th an attempt was made 
to open negotiations. The natives finally accepted 
cloth and brass rods to show King Mazam- 
boni, and his answer was to be given next day. 
Meantime hostilities were suspended. The morn- 
ing of the 11th of December dawned. At 8 a. m. 
we were startled at hearing a man proclaiming 
that it was Mazamboni's wish that we should be 
driven back from the land. The proclamation 



354 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

was received in the valley around our neighbor- 
hood with deafening cheers. Their word 'Kan- 
wana ' signifies to make peace : ' Kurwana ' signi- 
fies war. We were therefore in doubt, or rather 
we hoped we had heard wrongly. We sent our 
interpreter a little nearer to ask if it was Kanwana 
or Kurwana. ■ Kurwana' they responded, and to 
emphasize the term fired two arrows at him, 
which dissipated all doubt. Our position lay 
between a lofty range of hills and a lower range. 
On one side of us was a narrow valley, two 
hundred and fifty yards wide ; on the other side a 
valley three miles wide. Ea^ and west the valley 
broadened to an extensive plain, and a higher 
range of hills was lined with hundreds preparing 
to descend. The broader valley was already mus- 
tering its army. There was no time to lose. A 
body of forty men was sent under Lieutenant 
Stairs to attack the broader valley. Mr. Jephson 
was sent with thirty men east. A choice body of 
sharpshooters was sent to test the courage of those 
descending the slope of the highest range. Lieu- 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 355 

tenant Stairs pressed on, crossed a deep, narrow 
river in the face of the natives, and assaulted the 
first village and took it. The sharpshooters did 
their work effectively and drove the descending 
natives rapidly up the slope until there became a 
general flight. Jephson was not idle. He marched 
straight up the valley east, driving the people 
back, taking villages as we went. At 3 p. m. not 
a native was visible anywhere, except on one 
small hill a mile and a-half west. On the morn- 
ing of the 12th we continued our march. During 
the day we had four little fights. On the 13th we 
marched straight east, attacked by new forces 
every hour till noon, when we halted for refresh- 
ments. These we successfully overcame. At 1 
p. m. we resumed our march. Fifteen minutes 
later I cried : ' Prepare for sight of Nyanza.' 

" The men murmured and doubted, and said : 
' Why does master continually talk this way ? 
Nyanza, indeed ! Is not this a plain, and can we 
not see the mountains ¥ 

" After a four days' march ahead, at 1:30 p. m., 



356 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

the Albert Nyanza was sighted. It was now my 
turn to jeer and scoff at the doubters, but as I was 
about to ask them what they saw, so many came 
to kiss my hands and beg pardon that I could not 
say a word. 

" This was my reward. 

" While in England considering the best routes 
open to the Albert Nyanza, I thought I was very 
liberal in allowing myself two weeks' march to 
cross the forest region lying between the Congo 
and the grassland, but you may imagine our feel- 
ings when month after month saw us marching, 
tearing, ploughing, cutting through that same 
continuous forest. It took one hundred and 
sixty days before we could say, ' Thank God, we 
are out of the darkness at last.' At one time we 
were all — whites and blacks — almost 'done up.' 
September, October, and half of that month of No- 
vember, 1887, will be specially memorable for the 
suffering we endured. Our officers are heartily 
sick of the forest, but the royal blacks, a band of 
one hundred and thirty, followed me once again 



STANLEY TO THE EESCUE. 357 

into the wild, trackless forest, with its hundreds 
of inconveniences, to assist their comrades of the 
rear column. Take a thick Scottish copse, drip- 
ping with rain ; imagine this copse to be a mere 
undergrowth, nourished under the impenetrable 
shade of ancient trees, ranging from one hundred 
to one hundred and eighty feet high ; briers and 
thorns abundant, lazy creeks meandering through 
the depths of the jungle, and sometimes the deep 
affluent of a great river. Imagine this forest and 
jungle in all stages of decay and growth — old 
trees falling, leaning perilously over, fallen pros- 
trate ; ants and insects of all kinds, sizes and 
colors murmuring around, monkeys and chimpan- 
zees above, queer noises of birds and animals, 
crashes in the jungle as troops of elephants rush 
away ; dwarfs with poisoned arrows securely hid- 
den behind some buttress or in some dark recess ; 
strong, brown-bodied aborigines with terribly 
sharp spears, standing poised, still as dead 
stumps ; rain pattering dowm on you every other 
day in the year ; an impure atmosphere, with its 



358 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

dread consequences, fever and dysentery ; gloom 
throughout the day and darkness almost palpable 
throughout the night. 

"This proved an awful month to us," says 
Stanley. "Not one member of our expedition, 
white or black, will forget it. Our advance num- 
bered two hundred and sixty-three souls. On 
leaving Ugarrowwas, out of the three hundred 
and eighty- nine we lost sixty six men by deser- 
tion and death between Yambuga and Ugarrow- 
was, and had left fifty -six men sick in the Arab 
station. On meeting Kilingasongas we dis- 
covered he had lost fifty-five men by starvation 
and desertion. We had lived principally on wild 
fruit, fungi and a large, flat, bean-shaped nut. 
Slaves of Abed bin- Salim did their utmost to ruin 
the expedition. They purchased rifles, ammuni- 
tion, and clothing, so that when we left their 
station we were beggared and our men absolutely 
naked. We were so weak physically that we 
were unable to carry the boat and about seventy 
loads of goods. We therefore left goods and boats 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 359 

at Kilingasongas under Surgeon Parke and Cap- 
tain Nelson, the latter of whom was unable to 
march. After twelve days' march we arrived at 
a native settlement, called Ibwiri, between Kiling- 
asongas and Ibwiri. Our condition had not 
improved. 

The Arab devastation had reached within a few 
miles of Ibwiri, a devastation so complete that 
not one native hut was standing between Ugar- 
rowwas and Ibwiri, and what had not been 
destroyed by slaves of Ugarrowwas and Abed-bin- 
Salim, the elephants destroyed and turned the 
whole region into a horrible wilderness. "But 
at Ibwiri we were beyond the utmost reach of 
destroyers. We were on virgin soil, in a populous 
region, abounding with food. Our sufferings 
from hunger, which began on August 31st, ter- 
minated on November 12th. Out of three hun- 
dred and eighty -nine we now only numbered one 
hundred and seventy-four, several having no hope 
of life left. A halt was ordered for the people to 
recuperate. Hitherto they were sceptical of what 



360 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

we told them. The suffering had been so awful, 
calamities so numerous, forests so endless, appar- 
ently, that they refused to believe that by and by 
we should see plains and cattle, and the Nyanza 
and the white man, Emin Pasha. We felt as 
though we were dragging them along with a 
chain around our necks. 

" ' Beyond these raiders,' said I, ' lies a country 
untouched, where food is abundant and where 
you will forget your miseries ; so cheer up, boys, 
— be men. Press on a little faster.' 

"They were deaf to our prayers and entreaties, 
for, driven by hunger and suffering, they sold 
their rifles and equipments for a few ears of 
Indian corn, deserted with the ammunition, and 
were altogether demoralized. Perceiving that 
prayers and entreaties and mild punishments 
were of no avail, I then resorted to the death 
penalty. Two of the worst cases were accordingly 
taken and hanged in presence of all. 

" We halted thirteen days in Ibwiri and 
revelled in fowls, goats, bananas, corn, sweet 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 361 

potatoes, yams, beans, etc. The supplies were 
inexhaustible and the people glutted them- 
selves. The result was that I had one hundred 
and seventy- three (one was killed by an arrow) 
mostly sleek and robust men when I set out for 
Albert Nyanza on November 24th. There were 
still one hundred and twenty-six miles to the lake, 
but with food such a distance seemed nothing. 
On December 1st we sighted the open country 
from the top of the ridge connected with Mount 
Pisgah — so named because it was our first view of 
the land of promise and plenty. December 5th 
we entered upon the plains, and the deadly 
gloomy forest was behind. After one hundred 
and sixty days' continuous gloom we saw the 
light of day shining all around, making all 
things beautiful. We thought we never saw 
grass so green or country so lovely. The men 
literally leaped and yelled with joy and raced with 
their burdens. 

" This was the old spirit of former expeditions, 
successfully completed, and all of a sudden 



362 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

revived. Woe to the native aggressor whom we 
may meet. However powerful he may be, with 
such spirit, men will fling themselves like wolves 
on sheep, numbers not considered. It had been 
the eternal forest that had made abject and slavish 
the creatures so brutally plundered by Arab 
slavers. " 

After eighteen months of hideous suffering, of 
marching and countermarching, of endless wait- 
ing and constant disappointment, of disease and 
starvation, Stanley welcomed Emin Pasha, the 
ruler he had been sent to relieve, near Kavallis, a 
village on the Albert Nyanza, only to find his 
guest in new circumstances and displaying a new 
character. To Stanley's intense disappointment, 
the ruler of the Equatorial Provinces was accom- 
panied only by some six hundred fugitives, Egyp- 
tians and Nubians, of both sexes and all ages— of 
whom the men were so disaffected that they laid 
a plot to seize Stanley's rifles, and drive him and 
his followers naked into the wilderness to perish- 
This plot was no explosion of mere murmurings. 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 363 

It was carefully laid, it was favored by the 
mutinous chiefs at Wadelai, aud it might have 
succeeded but for Stanley's determination and 
promptitude. He rose to the occasion, sum- 
moned Emin Pasha's forces to the great square, 
surrounded them with his armed Zanzibaris, and 
told them plainly that mutiny and plotting must 
cease, or he would extirpate them all. 

As usual, under such circumstances, he was 
instantly saluted as their father, the plots were 
given up for the time, and Stanley had now no 
obstacle to overcome except the character of the 
man he had set out to rescue. Emin Pasha's 
irresolution was almost invincible. He pleaded 
inability to "desert" his followers at Wadelai, 
who had mutinied and imprisoned him ; but there 
was something more, which Stanley himself calls 
the fascination of the Soudan, which constantly 
seizes Europeans, and is probably the charm of an 
absolute and beneficial authority, unfettered by 
the galling restrictions of Europe. Emin Pasha 
to the last moment hoped to regain his followers 



361 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

and his dominions : he evidently had only an 
imperfect knowledge of his own relation to his 
people ; he believed that they would leave Wade- 
lai at his summons ; he trusted every letter he 
received from a mutinous lieutenant of his own, 
named Selim Bey ; and he would apparently have 
waited on, vaguely hoping for a turn in affairs, 
until the Mahdists descended to attack the whole 
party. 

After meeting Emin Pasha, Stanley returned to 
the Aruwimi, and reached Yambuga, after an 
absence of thirteen months and twenty days, to 
learn for himself the story of disaster, desertion 
and death. Major Barttelot had been shot by 
the Manyuemas. Jamieson had gone to Stanley 
Falls, and Herbert Ward had gone to Bangala. 
Stanley says that, at an officers' mess meeting, it 
was proposed that his instructions should be can- 
celled. u The only one who appears to have 
dissented was Mr. Bonney. Accordingly my 
personal kit, medicines, soap, candles, and pro- 
visions, were sent down the Congo as superfluities. 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 365 

Thus, after making this immense personal sacri- 
fice to relieve them and cheer them up, I find 
myself naked and deprived of even the necessaries 
of life in Africa. But, strange to say, I have 
kept two hats, four pairs of boots, a flannel 
jacket, and I propose to go back to Emin Pasha 
and across Africa with this truly African kit. 
Livingstone, poor fellow, was all in patches when 
I met him, but it will be the reliever himself who 
will be in patches this time. Fortunately, not 
one of my officers will envy me, for their kits are 
intact." 

Wadelai, with the whole region of the Upper 
Nile and all the populous territories north of the 
Lakes, is now abandoned to the fanatical Mo- 
hammedan leaders following the Mahdi's stand- 
ard, as the garrison refused any longer to obey 
Emin Pasha ; and it was with difficulty that 
Mounteney Jephson, whom Stanley had deputed 
to arrange for Emin Pasha's departure, after 
their meeting in April, 1888, on the shores of 
Lake Albert Nyanza, was able to get him away. 



366 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

On emerging into civilization once more, Stanley 
penned the following letter to his old employer, 
the New York Herald : 

" First of all, I am in perfect health and feel 
like a laborer of a Saturday evening returning 
home with his week's w r ork done, his week's 
wages in his pocket and glad that to morrow is 
Sunday. 

" Just about three years ago, while lecturing in 
New England, a message came from under the 
sea bidding me to hasten and take a commission 
to relieve Emm Pasha at Wadelai ; but, as people 
generally do with their faithful pack-horses, 
numbers of little trifles, odds and ends, are piled 
on over and above the proper burden . Twenty 
various little commissions were added to the 
principal one, each requiring due care and 
thought. Well, looking back over what has been 
accomplished, I see no reason for any heart's dis- 
content. We can say we shirked no task, and 
that good-will, aided by steady effort, enabled us 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 367 

to complete every little job as well as circum- 
stances permitted. 

"Over and above the happy ending of our 
appointed duties we have not been unfortunate 
in geographical discoveries. The Aruwimi is 
now known from its source to its bourne. The 
great Congo forests, covering as large an area as 
France and the Iberian peninsula, we can now 
certify to be an absolute fact. The Mountains of 
the Moon this time, beyond the least doubt, have 
been located, and Euwenzori, ' The Cloud King,' 
robed in eternal snow, has been seen and its 
flanks explored and some of its shoulders 
ascended ; Mounts Gordon Bennett and Mackin- 
non cones being but giant sentries warding off 
the approach to the inner area of ' The Cloud 
King.' 

"On the south-east of the range the connection 
between Albert Edward Nyanza and the Albert 
Nyanza has been discovered, and the extent of 
the former lake is now known for the first time. 
Range after range of mountains has been trav- 



368 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ersed, separated by such tracts of pasture land as 
would make your cowboys out West mad with 
envy. 

" And right under the burning equator we 
have fed on blackberries and bilberries and 
quenched our thirst with crystal water fresh 
from snow beds. We have also been able to add 
nearly six thousand square miles of water to 
Victoria Nyauza. 

' ■ Our naturalist will expatiate upon the new 
species of animals, birds, and plants he has dis- 
covered. Our surgeon will tell what he knows of 
the climate and its amenities. It will take us all 
we know how to say what new store of knowl- 
edge has been gathered from this unexpected 
field of discoveries. 

"I always suspected that in the central regions 
between the equatorial lakes something worth 
seeing would be found, but I was not prepared 
for such a harvest of new facts. 

"This has certainly been the most extraordin- 
ary expedition I have ever led into Africa. A 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 369 

veritable divinity seems to have hedged us while 
we journeyed. I say it with all reverence. It 
has impelled us whither it would, effected its own 
will, but nevertheless guided and protected us. 

" What can you make of this, for instance? 
On August 17, 1887, all the officers of the rear 
column are united at Yambuga. They have my 
letter of instructions before them, but instead of 
preparing for the morrow's march, to follow our 
tracks, they decide to wait at Yambuga, which 
decision initiates the most awful season any com- 
munity of men ever endured in Africa or else- 
where. 

" The results are that three-quarters of th en- 
force die of slow poison. Their commander is 
murdered and the second officer dies soon after of 
sickness and grief. Another officer is wasted to 
a skeletoirand obliged to return home. A fourth 
is sent to wander aimlessly up and down the 
Congo, and the survivor is found in such a fear- 
ful pesthole that we dare not describe its horrors. 

" On the same date, one hundred and fifty 



370 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

miles away, the officer of the day leads three 
hundred and thirty-three men of the advanced 
column into the bush, loses the path and all con- 
sciousness of his whereabouts, and every step he 
takes only leads him further astray. His people 
become frantic ; his white companions, vexed 
and irritated by the sense of the evil around 
them, cannot devise any expedient to relieve him. 
They are surrounded by cannibals, and poison- 
dipped arrows thin their number. 

" Meantime, I, in command of the river 
column, anxiously searching up and down the 
river in four different directions ; through forests 
my scouts are seeking for them, but not until 
the sixth day was I successful in finding them. 

u Taking the same month and date in 1888, a 
year later, on August 17, I listen, horror struck, 
to the last surviving officer of the rear column at 
Banalya, and am told of nothing but death and 
disaster, disaster and death, death and disaster. 
I see nothing but horrible forms of men smitten 
with disease, bloated, disfigured and scarred ; 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 371 

while the scene in the camp, infamous for the mur- 
der of poor Barttelot, barely four weeks before, is 
simply sickening. 

" On the same day, six hundred miles west of 
this camp, Jamieson, worn out with fatigue, sick- 
ness and sorrow, breathes his last. On the next 
day, August 18, six hundred miles east, Emin 
Pasha and my officer, Jephson, are suddenly sur- 
rounded by infuriate rebels, wiio menace them 
with loaded rifles and instant death, but fortu- 
nately they relent and only make them prisoners, 
to be delivered to the Mahdists. Having saved 
Bonny out of the jaws of death we arrive a second 
time at Albert Nyanza, to find Emin Pasha and 
Jephson prisoners in daily expectation of their 
doom. 

"Jephson's own letters will describe his anx- 
iety. Not until both were in my camp and the 
Egyptian fugitives under our protection did I 
begin to see that I was only carrying out a higher 
plan than mine. My own designs were constantly 
frustrated by unhappy circumstances. I endeav- 



372 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ored to steer my courseas direct as possible, but 
there was an unaccountable influence at the helm. 
I gave as much good- will to my duties as the 
strictest honor would compel. My faith that the 
purity of my motive deserved success was firm, 
but I have been conscious that the issues of every 
effort were in other hands. 

"Not one officer who was with me will forget 
the miseries he has ejidured, yet every one that 
started from his home destined to march with the 

advance column and share its wonderful advent- 
ures is here to day safe, sound and well. 

" This is not due to me. Lieutenant Stairs w r as 
pierced with a poisoned arrow like others, but 
others died and he lives. The poison tip came out 
from under his heart eighteen months after he 
was pierced. Jephson was four months a pris- 
oner, with guards with loaded rifles around him. 
That they did not murder him is not due to me. 
These officers have had to wade through as 
many as seventeen streams and broad expanses 
of mud and swamp in a day. They have endured 



STANLEY TO THE RESCUE. 373 

a sun that scorched whatever it touched. A 
multitude of impediments have ruffled their tem- 
pers and harassed their hours. They have been 
maddened with the agonies of fierce fevers. 
They have lived for months in an atmosphere 
that medical authority declared to be deadly. 
They have faced dangers every day, and their 
diet has been all through what legal serfs would 
have declared to be infamous and abominable, 
and yet they live. 

"This is not due to me any more than the 
courage with which they have borne all that was 
imposed upon them by their surroundings or the 
cheery energy which they bestowed to their work, 
or the hopeful voices which rang in the ears of a 
deafening multitude of blacks and urged the poor 
souls on to their goal. 

" The vulgar will call it luck. Unbelievers will 
call it chance, but deep down in each heart re- 
mains the feeling, that of verity there are more 
things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of 
in common philosophy. 



374 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

" I must be brief. Numbers of scenes crowd 
the memory. 

" Could one but sum them into a picture it would 
have a grand interest. The uncomplaining hero- 
ism of our dark followers, the brave manhood 
latent in uncouth disguise, the tenderness we have 
seen issuing from nameless entities, the great lovu 
animating the ignoble, the sacrifice made by the 
unfortunate for one more unfortunate, the rever- 
ence we have noted in barbarians, who, even as 
ourselves, were inspired with nobleness and in- 
centives to duty — of all these we could speak if 
we would, but I leave that to the Herald corres- 
pondent, who, if he has eyes to see, will see much 
for himself, and who, with his gifts of composi- 
tion, may present a very taking outline of what 
has been done, and is now near ending, thanks be 
to God for ever and ever ! 

" Yours faithfully, 

" Henry M. Stanley." 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 375 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 

On April 26th, 1888, Stanley reached the Equa- 
torial Province and clasped Emin's hand. He 
found the latter in a state of uncertainty about 
the future. The expected attack from the Mahdi 
had not taken place ; on the whole, Emin was 
unwilling to abandon his government. Anxious 
for the safety of his rear-guard, Stanley hurried 
back over his own trail through the woods to 
Yambuga. He found that Major Barttelot had 
been murdered, Ward and Troup had gone home, 
and Jamieson was in search of Tippoo Tib. Less 
than a third of his two hundred and fifty men 
could be found. With these he began once more 
the march through the forest, and in January, 
1889, again reached the Nyanza, after much loss 
and harassing from x\rabs and the Wambutti 



376 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

dwarfs. At the lake the news reached him that 
Emin's Egyptian chief officer had rebelled and 
thrown Emm and Jephson, his only European 
comrade, in prison. This officer, Selim Bey, now 
called himself chief of the Province, and had 
made a good stand against the Mahdists, who 
were at last advancing from the north. The 
prisoners escaped from Wadelai, and joined Stan- 
ley. 

After describing how he hunted up the missing 
rear column Stanley portrays the terrors of the 
march back to the Nyanza. 

a I have already told you that the rear column 
was in a deplorable state ; that out of the one 
hundred and two members remaining I doubted 
whether fifty would live to reach the lake ; but 
having collected a large number of canoes, the 
goods and sick men were transported in these 
vessels in such a smooth and expeditious manner 
that there were remarkably few casualties in the 
remnant of the rear column. But wild natives, 
having repeatedly defeated the Ugarrowwas 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 377 

raiders, and by this discovered the extent of their 
own strength, gave trouble, and inflicted consid- 
erable loss among our best men, who had 
always to bear the brunt of the fighting and the 
fatigue of paddling. However, we had no reason 
to be dissatisfied with the time we had made. 

" When progress by river became too tedious 
and difficult an order to cast off canoes was given. 
This was four days' journey above the Ugarrow- 
was station, or about three hundred miles above 
Banalaya. We decided that, as the south bank 
of the Ituri River was pretty well known to us, 
it would be best to try the north bank, although 
we should have to traverse for some days the 
despoiled lands which had been a common centre 
for the Ugarrowwas and the Kilingasongas bands 
of raiders. We were about one hundred miles 
from grass-land, which opened up a prospect of 
future feasts of beef, veal and mutton, and a 
pleasing variety of vegetables, as well as oil and 
butter for cooking. 

" On October 30, having cast off the canoes, the 



378 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

land march began in earnest, and we two days 
later discovered a large plantain plantation in 
charge of the Dwaris. The people flung them- 
selves on the plantains to make as large provision 
as possible for the dreaded wilderness ahead. 
The most enterprising always secured a fair share, 
and twelve hours later would be furnished with a 
week's provision of plantain flour. The feeble 
and indolent reveled for the time being on an 
abundance of roasted fruit, but always neglected 
providing for the future, and thus became victims 
to famine. 

"Ten days passed before we reached another 
plantation, during which we lost more men than 
we had lost between Banalaya and Ugarrowwas. 
Small-pox broke out among the Manyema, and 
the mortality was terrible. Our Zanzibaris 
escaped the pest, however, owing to the vaccina- 
tion they had undergone. We were now about 
four days 5 march above the confluence of the 
Ihuru and Ituri Eivers and within about a mile 
from Ishuru. As there was no possibility of 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 379 

crossing this violent tributary of the Aruwimi we 
had to follow its right bank till a crossing could 
be discovered. Four days later we stumbled 
across the principal village of the district, called 
Andikumu. It was surrounded by the finest 
plantation of bananas and plantains we had yet 
seen, which all the Manyemas' habit of spoliation 
and destruction had been unable to destroy. 
There, our people, after severe starvation during 
fourteen days, gorged themselves to such excess 
that it contributed greatly to lessen our numbers. 
Every twentieth individual suffered from some 
complaint which entirely incapacitated him from 
duty. 

ft The Ituri River was about four miles S. S. E. 
from this place, flowing from E. N. E. It was 
about sixty yards broad and deep, owing to heavy 
rains. From Andikumu six days' march north- 
east brought us to another flourishing settlement, 
called Indeman, situated about four hours' march 
from a river, supposed to be the Ihuru. Here I 
was considerably nonplussed by a grievous discrep- 



380 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ancy between native accounts and my own obser- 
vations. The natives called it the Ihuru River, 
and my instruments and chronometer made it 
very evident it could not be the Ihuru. After 
capturing some Dwarfs we discovered it was the 
right branch of the Ihuru, called the Dui River, 
this agreeing with my own view. We searched 
and found a place where we could build a bridge 
across. Bonny and our Zanzibari chief threw 
themselves into the work and in a few hours the 
Dui River was safely bridged. We passed from 
Indeman into a district entirely unvisited by 
Manyema." 

Here followed daily conflicts with the Wam- 
butti dwarfs, which were very numerous in this 
region. The Wambuttis clung to the north-east 
route, which Stanley wanted to take. Accord- 
ingly, he went south-east and followed elephant 
tracks. But on December 9th we were compelled 
to halt for forage in the middle of a vast forest, 
at a spot indicated by my chart to be not more 
than two or three miles from the Ituri River, 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 381 

which many of our people had seen while residing 
at Fort Bodo. I sent one hundred and fifty rifles 
back to a settlement that was fifteen miles back on 
the route we had come, while many Manyema fol- 
lowers also undertook to follow them. 

Six days passed without news of the foragers. 
For the first four days the time passed rapidly, 
almost pleasantly, Stanley being occupied in 
re -calculating his observations from Ugarrowwas 
to Lake Albert down to date. This occupation 
ended, he was left to wonder why the large band 
of foragers did not return. On the fifth day, hav- 
ing distributed all the stock of flour in camp, and 
having killed the only goat they possessed, he 
was compelled to open the officers' provision 
boxes and take a pound pot of butter with two 
cupf uls of flour to make an imitation gruel, there 
being nothing else save tea, coffee, sugar, and a 
pot of sago in the boxes. 

On the afternoon of the same day a boy died, 
and many of the people were so weak that they 
could not stand. Before night a Mahdi carrier 



382 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

died, and many of the Soudanese showed signs of 
collapse. On the morning of the following day- 
Stanley fed his one hundred and thirty people 
with a broth made of a pot of butter, a can of 
condensed milk, a cupful of flour, and, as he 
naively remarks, an abundance of water. 

The crisis was so alarming that Stanley called 
Bonny and the chiefs to a council. Fears were 
expressed that the foraging party of one hundred 
and fifty men had forgotten their starving com- 
rades and were enjoying themselves in some dis- 
trict well stocked with food. Another supposition 
was that they had lost their road and were in 
danger of starvation themselves. 

Bonny volunteered to remain in camp with ten 
men if ten days' food were provided for each 
person. Stanley managed to scrape together 
enough to make the usual light gruel for this 
party, but no provision could be made for the 
sick and feeble, who would also be left behind 
in the forest. Twenty-six of these were in 
camp, and there was no hope for any of them 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 383 

unless food could be found within twenty-four 
hours. 

Stanley then started out on his search for the 
foragers. He traveled nine miles on the first day, 
passing several dead bodies on the way. On the 
second day after, he met the foragers marching 
easily along, as if there were no reason for 
them to hurry. He prodded them along so 
energetically that they all reached Camp Starva- 
tion twenty -six hours later, laden down with 
bananas, plantains, and meat. Twenty persons 
died in Camp Starvation. It was the nearest 
approach to absolute famine in the whole of Stan- 
ley's African experience. 

The story of the rebellion against Emin is 
best told by Lieutenant Jephson. 

" On August 18 a rebellion broke out, and the 
Pasha and I were made prisoners. The Pasha 
was a complete prisoner, but I was allowed to go 
about the station, but my movements were 
watched. The rebellion was gotten up by some 
half-dozen Egyptians— officers and clerks — and 



384 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

gradually others joined, some through inclination, 
but most through fear. The soldiers, with the 
exception of those at Lahore, never took part in 
it, but quietly grve in to their officers. 

" When the Pasha and I were on our way to 
Eegaf two men — one an officer, Abdul Voal Effen- 
di, and the other a clerk — went about and told the 
people they had seen Stanley, and that he was 
only an adventurer and had not come from 
Egypt ; that the letters he had brought from the 
Khedive and Nubar were forgeries ; that it was 
untrue Khartoum had fallen, and that Emin 
Pasha and Stanley had plotted to take them, 
their wives and their children, out of the country 
and hand them over as slaves to the English. 
Such words in an ignorant, fanatical country 
like this acted like fire among the people, and 
the result was a general rebellion and we were 
made prisoners. The rebels then collected the 
officers from the different stations and held a large 
meeting to determine what measures they should 
take, and all those who did not join the move- 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 385 

ment were so insulted and abused that they were 
obliged for their own safety to acquiesce in what 
was done. 

" The Pasha was deposed, ani those officers 
suspected of being friendly to him were removed 
from their posts, and those friendly to the rebels 
were put in their place. It was decided to take 
the Pasha as a prisoner to Regaf, and some of the 
worst rebels were even in for putting him in 
irons, but the officers were afraid to put their 
plans into execution, as the soldiers said they 
never would permit any one to lay a hand on him. 
Plans were also made to entrap Stanley when he 
returned. Things were in this condition when we 
were startled by the news that the Mahdi's people 
had arrived at Lado with three steamers and nine 
sandals and nuggars, and had established them- 
selves on the site of the old station. Omar Sali, 
their general, sent up three dervishes with a 
letter to the Pasha demanding the instant surren- 
der of the country. The rebel officers seized them 
and put them into prison, and decided on war. 



386 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

After a few days the Mahdists attacked and cap- 
tured Begaf, killing five officers and numbers of 
soldiers and taking many women and children 
prisoners, and all the stores and ammunition in 
the station were lost. The result of this was a 
general stampede of the people from the stations 
of Biddon Kim and Muggi, who fled with their 
women and children to Lahore, abandoning 
almost everything. At Kirri the ammunition 
was abandoned and was seized by natives." 

Writing from the south end of Victoria Nyan- 
za, under date of September 3, 1889, Stanley 
says : 

" The rebels of the Emin government relied 
upon their craft and on the wiles of the c Heathen 
Chinee/ and it is amusing now to look back and 
note how punishment has fallen on them. Was 
it Providence or was it luck ? Let those who love 
to analyze such matters reflect on it. Traitors 
without camp and traitors within were watched, 
and the most active conspirator was discovered, 
tried, and hanged. The traitors without fell foul 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 3S7 

of one another and ruined themselves. If it is 
not luck, then it is surely Providence in answer 
to good men's prayers. 

" Far away, our own people, tempted by their 
extreme wretchedness and miserv, sold our rifles 
and ammunition to our natural enemies, the Man 
yema, the slave trader's true friends, without the 
least grace either of bodies or souls. What happy 
influence was it that restrained me from destroy- 
ing all concerned in it ? Each time I read the 
story of Nelson and Parker's sufferings I feel 
vexed at my forbearance, and yet again I feel 
thankful for a higher power than man's, which 
severely afflicted them with cold-blooded murders 
by causing them to fall upon one another a few 
weeks after the rescue and relief of Nelson and 
Parke. 

" The memory of those days alternately har- 
dens and unmans me. With the rescue of Emm 
Pasha, poor old Casati and those who preferred 
Egypt's fleshpots to the coarse plenty of the prov- 
ince near Nyanza, w r e returned ; and while we 



388 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

were patiently waiting, the doom of the rebels 
was consummated.^ After this time of dreadful 
anxiety Stanley was smitten with fever, and 
came near dying. The strain had been too much, 
and for twenty-eight days he lay helpless, tended 
by the kind and skillful hands of Surgeon Parke. 
Then little by little he gathered strength and 
finally gave orders for the march for home. 

He again plainly laid before Emin Pasha the 
object of the expedition, and offered to wait a 
reasonable time for him. Emin- agreed that 
twenty days was a reasonable time for prepara- 
tion. The interval was occupied by Surgeon 
Parke in healing the sick. So devoted and skill - 
ful was he that Stanley was able, on April 1, 1889, 
to turn out two hundred and eighty able-bodied 
men, whereas in February it would have been 
difficult to muster two hundred. 

Stanley complains of the immense loads of 
property the refugees brought in, entailing end- 
less work upon his men to bring to the plateau, 
and which was practically rubbish, because it 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 3S9 

must be abandoned on the march. On March 1 
he ordered the stuff be stopped from being 
brought to camp. Thirteen hundred and fifty- 
five loads had already been brought in. A month 
after Selim's departure a letter arrived from him 
announcing that rebels, officers and everybody, 
were unanimous to depart for Egypt under Stan- 
ley's escort. 

Stanley now finding great delay likely in 
assembling the refugees called a council of the 
officers, and stated in detail the position of the 
case, also the danger of trusting the rebels implic- 
itly, as Emin was inclined to do, when they had 
already boasted of their intention to entrap 
Stanley with cajoling words and strip his expedi- 
tion. Finally, Stanley asked the officers whether 
he would be justified in waiting beyond April 10. 
Each officer replied in the negative. " There, 
Pasha," said Stanley, "you have your answer. 
We march on the 10th." 

" In reply to Emin's question," continues Stan- 



390 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

ley, "I said we could certainly, in our conscience, 

acquit him of having abandoned the people. " 

It was clear that the Pasha no longer had 

authority. At this time, Stanley discovered con 

spiracies in the camp. The Egyptians tried to 

steal the rifles of the Zanzibaris, and the number 

of malcontents kept increasing. Emin had also 

received news of a bad state of things at Wadelai. 

Therefore Stanley decided upon immediate 

action. Those who refused to come were arrested 

and placed in irons and some were flogged. All 

denied any knowledge of a plot. 

"I told all who desired to accompany me to 

stand aside and, through the Pasha, threatened to 
exterminate them wholly if there were any more 
rebellious tricks. They promised religious obedi- 
ence. This muster consisted of about six hundred 
persons. On the 10th we started, numbering 
about one thousand five hundred persons, includ- 
ing three hundred and fifty newly-enrolled native 
carriers. On the 12th we camped at Mazambonis. 
The march was resumed on May 8, adopting a 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA, 39 1 

route skirting the Baregga Mountains, forty miles 
from Nyanza. Arriving at the southern end of 
the mountains, a successful encounter with the 
King of Ungoro cleared the route as far as the 
Semliki Kiver. 

The first week of August found the long cara- 
van at Karagwe, a well-known Missionary Sta- 
tion, on the Nyanza' s southern shore, whence the 
route was south-east through the Usukuma and 
Unyamwezi countries to the coast. 

In one of his letters Stanley says : " We have 
made the unexpected discovery of real value in 
Africa of a considerable extension of the Victoria 
Nyanza to the north-west. The almost southerly 
reach of this extension is south latitude 2° 48', 
which brings the Victorian sea within one hundred 
and fifty five miles only from Lake Tanganika. 
.... On the road here I made a rough sketch of 
it, and I find that the area of the great lake is now 
increased by this discovery to 20,900 square miles, 
which is just about 1,900 square miles larger than 
the reputed exaggerations of Captain Speke." 



392 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

Discovery after discovery in this wonderful 
region was made— the snowy ranges of the 
" Cloud King," or " Eain Creator, 5 ' the Semliki 
River, the Albert Edward Nyanza, the plains of 
Noongora, the salt lakes of Kative, the new 
peoples of the Wakonju or Great Mountains, the 
dwellers of the rich forest region, the Awamba : 
the fine-featured Wasonyora, the Wanyora ban- 
dits, the tribes and shepherd races of the Eastern 
uplands ; then Wanyakori, besides the Wanyaru- 
wamba and Wazinja. 

Stanley came out of Africa with all the Euro- 
peans who were connected with Emm Bey's 
efforts in the Equatorial Province. He reached 
Mpwapwa November 11, on the fifty fifth day from 
the Victoria Nyanza and the one hundred and 
eighty-eighth day from the Albert Nyanza, bring- 
ing with him seven hundred and fifty people, 
including two hundred and ninety of Emm's 
people and the white men. The whites with him 
were Lieutenant Stairs, Captain Nelson, Jephson, 
Surgeon Parke, William Bonny, Mr. Hoffman, 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 393 

Emia Pasha and his daughter, Captain Casati, 
Sig. Marco and a Tunisian, Vitu Hassan, an 
apothecary, and Peres Girault and Schinze, of the 
Algerian Mission. 

The journey eastward was accomplished in two 
hundred and two days — a quick passage as com- 
pared with the journey from Zanzibar to Emin's 
Province, which took four hundred and twenty- 
nine days. The return march lay through the 
country claimed by the Germans £ In this latter 
part of the march the way had been smoothed by 
the exertions of Captain Wissman in subduing 
and placating the natives of that region. 

Met by Wissman's forces at some distance from 
the coast, Stanley was greeted with military 
honors, escorted to Bagamoyo, where German 
war- vessels fired salutes, and thence was carried 
in a man-of-war to Zanzibar, where he received 
by cable dispatches the congratulations of Em- 
peror William of Germany, and of distinguished 
personages, noted explorers and learned societies. 

The British India Steam Navigation Company 



39i HENRY M. STANLEY. 

gave a luncheon to the hero on board the steamer 
Arawatta. Stanley made a speech, in which he 
predicted the rapid growth and prosperity of East 
Africa. 

The Queen sent a cable dispatch, in w^hich she 
said : 

"My "thoughts are w r ith you and your brave 
followers, w r hose hardships and dangers are at an 
end. I again congratulate you all, including the 
Zanzibaris, who displayed such devotion and for- 
titude during your marvelous expedition." 

During the progress of a banquet Emin Pasha, 
owing to his partial blindness, walked off a bal- 
cony, and received severe injuries, from w T hich, 
however, he apparently recovered, though at this 
writing he is still a very sick man. 

Emin Pasha is a man who has won, under 
somewhat unpropitious circumstances, a claim 
to something that is better than fame. He is 
one of the reformers, one might say one of the 
regenerators, of the race, and to him and to his 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA, 395 

public career the apothegm may be ascribed that 
he has made the world better than he found it. 

Like General Gordon, who was his prototype, 
he defended his position against all the assaults 
of barbarism. In these days of self-seeking 
politics nothing reads stranger than Gordon's 
words: "I re-appoint you for civilization's and 
progress' sake," and Emin's acceptance of the 
duties of a sacred obligation in the words: "I 
remain here, the last of Gordon's lieutenants. It 
is my bounden duty to follow up the road he 
showed us." 

Emin was no sham leader. He once said in 
words that w r ill be historical: " These people 
have trusted me and I cannot desert them." It 
was with the utmost difficulty that Stanley rescued 
him. His own people revolted before he could be 
brought to believe that circumstances were des- 
perate. Even then a sentiment of romantic 
fidelity toward his rebellious people prevented 
action on his part which would have been wise 
and sagacious. It was not until Stanley reached 



396 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

him that he could be persuaded to abandon his 
place. His name will go down to posterity as 
that of "Emm the Faithful." 

A glance at some of the results of Stanley's last 
great spanning of the African continent may be 
of interest to the reader. 

Lieutenant Stairs, in June, 1889, 'spent two 
days in an attempt to reach the summit of the 
snowy Ruwenzori, a name which Stanley says, is 
identical with the "Mountains of the Moon' 5 of 
the ancients. In an article on the subject in the 
London Times it is explained that Lieutenant 
Stairs " only succeeded in reaching a height of 
10,600 feet, further progress being stopped by 
three deep ravines, covered with dense vegetation, 
that lay between them and the nearest snowy 
peak, which rose to a further height of 6,000 feet. 
But beyond this were other peaks, one of which 
at least rises even higher, so that Stanley's origi- 
nal conjecture of 18,000 feet may, after all, be 
correct. The mountain sides, /up to 8,000 feet, are 
inhabited by a people who have apparently taken 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 397 

refuge there from the raiders in the plains below. 
They disappeared before Stairs and his party. 

"Bamboo forests clothe the lower mountain 
sides, above which was a dense growth of true 
heaths rising to a height of twenty feet. Here 
and there were patches of stunted bamboos, be- 
neath a spongy moss, here and there violets and 
lichens, and scattered around blueberry and black- 
berry bushes. Lieutenant Stairs made a large 
collection of plants. The night spent on the 
mountain side proved to be bitterly cold, a great 
contrast to the sweltering valley they had left, 
and yet the thermometer registered 60° when the 
party turned in for the night. The upper part of 
the bare, rocky peak before him, Lieutenant 
Stairs could see, w T as devoid of vegetation. The 
extreme top of the peak is crowned with an irreg- 
ular mass of jagged and precipitous rock and has 
a distinct crater-like form. In the distance 
another peak could be seen having a similar 
form. 

" Lieutenant Stairs has come to the conclusion 



393 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

that the Ruwenzori range, or rather boss, is really 
an extinct volcano ; the jutting pinnacles on the 
sides of the mountains are old cones that burned 
out after the central vent had been choked up ; 
the whole evidently having a strong resemblance 
to the mountains of Auvergne. From the cen- 
tral mass spurs jut out in all directions, and 
down the valleys below these spurs torrents make 
their way from the central snow-clad summit, 
many evidently finding their way to the Semliki 
River and Lake Albert Edward. The debris of 
these moldering volcanoes brought down by the 
Semliki River, Stanley points out, is enormous, 
and is rapidly filling up the south end of the 
Albert Nyanza. 

" Of the snow on Mount Ruwenzori the great- 
est mass lay on the western slope, nearest to the 
party, covering the slope wherever its inclination 
is not too great. The largest bed of snow would 
cover a space measuring about six hundred feet 
by three hundred feet and of such depth that 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 399 

only in two spots did the black rock crop out 
above its surface. Smaller patches of snow 
extended down into the ravine. The height from 
the lowest snow to the summit of the peak is 
about 1,200 feet. Little animal life was seen on 
the mountain, but there were numerous signs 
that animals of various kinds went there. 

Many people think the African in Africa is a 
barbarian, but while some of them are, the 
majority of them are far from being so. Stanley 
in his travels visited the very worst classes on the 
Congo. They are no criterions of the Mahometan 
negroes, but quite the contrary. Africa contains 
130,000,000 negro inhabitants outside of the Moors 
and people of Arabic descent. When we say ne- 
groes, we mean natives with woolly hair Woolly 
hair is characteristic of the negro, but the flat nose 
and thick lips are only peculiar to them. One of 
the finest nations of Africa is the Foulah, which 
numbers about 30,000,000 souls, and live back of 
Senegambia, occupying a country 1,000 miles 



400 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

north to south and 1,500 east to west. These 
people are all Mahometans and write their own 
language in Arabic characters, also speaking, 
reading and writing Arabic. They are black, with 
woolly hair, but have thin, prominent noses and 
very thin lips. No traveler has ever been in their 
country since 1870. They make their own guns 
and gunpowder and fine leather work. In their 
cities they build houses two and three stories high 
of adobe and frame. They are governed by a 
Sultan and each man is entitled to four wives. 
Their costumes are similar to the Turks. Within 
their nation they have very large cities, but as 
they will not allow strangers within the borders 
all that can be learned of them is from such 
members of the country as make visits to the 
coast and elsewhere. On one occasion a French 
army of seven hundred French and 2,500 mixed 
soldiers with officers attempted to invade the 
Foulah country and got one hundred and forty- 
seven miles. Only seventeen succeeded in getting 
back These people make pilgrimages to Mecca, 



THE M1R0H TO THE SEA.. 401 

a distance of 6,800 miles, to pay their respects to 
the great shrine of the Mahometans. The most 
beautiful race of negroes are the Jaloff, from 
which the beautiful negroes of Louisiana were 
brought. 

In Africa polygamy is the rule, and the propor- 
tion of females born is tw T o and one-half to one of 
males. One African — Men Manna, King of the 
Eastern Veys — had two hundred and thirty- eight 
wives, five hundred and eighty-four children and 
1,860 slaves, and every one of his children, it is 
said, resembled him to such an extent that one 
could not fail to recognize them after once seeing 
the father. 

Stanley gives details of much interest concern- 
ing the various tribes among whom he passed, 
tribes mostly in a state of constant apprehension 
from the raids ol their powerful neighbors. The 
Wakontu are the only people who dwell upon the 
mountain ; their villages arc found at a height of 
8,000 feet above the sea. When the Warasura 
invade their country they retreat still higher up, 



402 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

to the edge of the snow. The lower slopes of the 
mountain are extensively cultivated by the 
Wakonju, who became very friendly with Stanley 
and his people. 

The inhabitants of Usongora are described as a 
fine race, but in no way differing from the finer 
types of men seen in Karagwe and Ankori, and 
the Wahuma shepherds of Uganda. The natives 
of Toro are a mixture of the highest class of 
negroes, somewhat like the natives of Uganda. 
Stanley maintains that the Ethiopic (Abyssinian) 
type is thickly spread through these Central 
African uplands. Wherever, he says, we find a 
land that enjoys periods of peace we find the 
Wahuma at home, with their herds, and in look- 
ing at them one might fancy one's self transported 
into the midst of Abyssinia. In Ankori the 
Wahuma race is more numerous than elsewhere. 
Many of them have features as regular, fair, and 
delicate as Europeans. 

The country south of Lake Albert Edward, 
Stanley thinks, is still unexplored, but that it must 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 403 

be very different from what it is represented to be 
in his own map of the ' Dark Continent.' Ruanda, 
beyond Lake Albert Edward, is evidently a fine 
country, with a people quite equal in numbers 
and strength to those of Uganda. 

It is thus evident that the geographical results 
of this memorable expedition are of equal impor- 
tance to the results in any other direction. Stan- 
ley has been enabled to solve some important 
puzzles in African geography. He was the dis- 
coverer of the Congo, and now he has been able 
to discover one of the remotest sources of the Nile 
and lay down the water-parting between the two 
great rivers. From Yambuga to the Albert 
Nyanza, and thence to Msalala, he has laid down 
an immense stretch of what is essentially new 
country, filled in its great physical features, and 
collected far more precise information about the 
varied tribes of people than ever he had before. 

Stanley's own notes on the physical geography 
of the lake region are highly interesting. If, he 
says, we shall draw a straight line from the 



401 . HENRY M. STANLEY. 

debouchure of the Nile from Lake Albert in a 
direction south-west magnetic, we shall have 
measured the length of a broad line of subsidence 
from twenty to fifty miles wide, that lies between 
3° north latitude and 1° south latitude, in the 
centre of the African Continent. On the west of 
this is a great upland, rising from 1,000 to 3,000 
feet above the chasm, to which its eastern face 
slopes almost perpendicularly down, and the 
western side bears away gently westward to the 
Ituri and Louva basins. To the right or east is 
another upland, rising from 1,000 to 3,000 feet 
above the chasm and trending gently eastward on 
the Unyoro plateau. In this section lies the 
Albert Nyanza. The central section of the so- 
called chasm, ninety miles long, consists of the 
Ruwenzori range, from 4,000 to 15,000 feet above 
the average level of the trough of the Semliki 
River valley. The remaining section of the 
upland is from 2.000 to 3,500 feet higher than the 
trough, and consists of the plateau of Usongora, 
Unyampaka, and Ankori. In the south section, 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 405 

only fif ty miles long, lies Lake Albert Edward and 
the plains between the lake and the mountain. 

Lake Albert Edward is comparatively small, 
not more than half the length of the north lake. 
The part of the Semliki Valley which extends 
from the lake south-westerly is very level, for 
thirty miles not more than fifty feet above the 
lake, and, in Mr. Stanley's opinion, of quite 
recent formation. At some distance south of the 
lake everything is saturated with moisture. At 
about seventy-five miles from the Albert Nyanza 
the valley attains a height of about nine hundred 
feet above the lake, and then the forest region 
abruptly ends, and as abruptly a new climate is 
reached, in its drought a complete contrast to the 
moisture-laden region in the north. 

Stanley came first of all down upon the north- 
west shore of Lake Albert Edward, where lies the 
district of Usongora. The great tongues of 
swamp between this and the mountain show how 
far the lake must at one time have spread. But 
the plain is a desert, though at one time there are 



406 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

evidences that it must have been thickly popu- 
lated. The raids of the Waganda and Warasura 
have depopulated the land of the Wasongora and 
left only a miserable remnant. The Ankori pla- 
teau, to the south of Unyampaka, Stanley 
describes as a large country, thickly peopled. 
The plateau is 5,000 feet above the sea, but the 
mountains rise to a height of 6,400 feet. 

If we lay a huge triangle across Central Africa, 
with the apex between the Eiver Aruwimi and 
the Lake Albert Nyanza, and with the two 
extremities of the base at the mouth of the Con- 
go on the west and at Zanzibar on the east, we 
see that Stanley climbed from west to east by way 
of the huge obtuse angle which took him through 
forests and marshes never before traversed by 
civilized man, and amongst strange and quasi- 
fabulous peoples, fierce cannibals, and savage 
little dwarfs, who offered every obstacle to his 
advance. Nor is that the sum of his achieve- 
ments. When his work seemed to be half- 
accomplished, when he had reached the northern 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA.. 407 

apex of his triangle, he had to return to pick up 
the scattered remnants of his rear-guard, left a 
long way in the south west. This done, the intre- 
pid and indefatigable man went back again to his 
work. Having reached the Albert Lake once 
again, and taken up Emin Pasha and the other 
fugitives from Wadelai, he struck a direct lijie to 
the coast. No more important contribution to our 
knowledge of African geography has been made 
within this generation, and no better hope has 
been held out for the ultimate civilization of this 
unmanageable continent, than the news that the 
extremities of the lakes of Yictoria Nyanza and 
Tanganika are within a distance of each other 
which may easily be traversed by a well-equipped 
caravan, and which might in time even be joined 
by a line of railway. Not less important, though 
less encouraging, is Stanley's boast that he has 
changed " the dead white " by which the charto- 
grapher has marked the Great Desert, which he 
crossed, into " a dead black " — a region covered by 
"one great, compact, remorseless, sullen forest," 



408 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

swarming at intervals with intractable savages. 
But apart from the geographical significance of the 
journey, it is memorable, as a magnificent victory 
of human courage over the resistances of Nature. 
Neither famine nor fever, neither marsh or forest, 
neither the slackness of disheartened followers, 
nor • the violence and treachery of countless 
enemies, could turn this indomitable leader of 
men from doing what he had pledged his word 
that he could and would do. 

At first sight it seems remarkable that no one 
has hitherto discovered the south-western exten- 
sion of the Victoria* Nyanza, of which Stanley 
seems inclined to make so much. It is nearly 
thirty years since Speke and Grant passed north- 
ward to the west of the Victoria Nyanza, through 
a country mountainous and marshy, and dis- 
covered that Lake Ujiji, which Stanley tells 
us in much more extensive than they made out. 
They also heard of Lake Akenyara, which Stan- 
ley subsequently extended and baptized the Alex- 
andra Nyanza. At first one is inclined to con- 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 409 

elude that these and other lakes and lakelets, 
which are so numerous in this region, are really 
only 'extensions of the Victoria Nyanza. 

But this is not the explanation. Stanley's own 
route when he marched south from Uganda to 
Ujiji on his first great journey was to the west- 
ward of Speke and Grant's, so that then he had 
no chance of discovering the extension. But at 
an earlier period of that journey, it will be 
remembered, he sailed both north and south 
pretty close to the south-west coast, but yet too 
far away to detect any extension, which, as he 
tells us, would be concealed by the mountainous 
islands which fringe the shore. At a much later 
date Mr. Pearson, one of the Uganda missionaries, 
skirted the whole of the south and west coast, 
going in and out among the islands, and often 
quite close to the shore. But just at the south- 
west corner a very considerable bend is indicated, 
which neither Mr. Pearson nor any one else has 
visited, and it may well be this bend which 
Stanley, coming through a perfectly new country, 



410 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

has found to extend some seventy miles to the 
south-west, just as another arm extends far to 
the south in the region in which lies Msalala. If, 
then, this arm of the lake reaches to 2° 48' south 
latitude, it must bring Tanganika and Victoria 
Nyanza within one hundred and fifty miles of 
each other, though it should be remembered that 
the longitudes, even on our best maps, are most 
uncertain in this part of Africa. 

As to the future career of Mr. Stanley much 
might be said. There is a strong probability that 
both he and Emin will lend their services to the 
British East Africa Company, the members of 
which have been so active in connection with this 
expedition, and that not a few of Emin's compan- 
ions will settle down in the company's territories. 

This will probably be Stanley's last great expedi- 
tion. His achievements as an explorer make him 
one of the foremost men of his time. He is 
honored by all classes and conditions of men. As 
has been well said, it is inspiring to note that this 



THE MARCH TO THE SEA. 41 1 

maUj whom kings and princes delight to know 
and praise, spent his boyhood in obscurity, and 
that in every sense he has been the architect of 
his own fortunes. 



FINIS. 



The New York Ledger 

FOR 1890. 

Subscription Price, only $2 a year. 



^♦*- 



The New York Ledger for 1890 will be the handsomest 
and (considering its contents) the cheapest family paper in 
the world. It will be issued in 16 large pages, filled with the 
choicest reading matter that can be procured ; and its sub- 
scription price will be only $2 a year. 

Among the contents of The New York Ledger for 1890 
will be the most interesting Serial Stories, with Illustrations 
by Distinguished Artists ; also Illustrated Short Stories com- 
plete in each number ; Articles of Travel ; Sketches of Adven- 
ture ; Articles on Household and Domestic Matters ; Articles 
on Timely Subjects and Current Events of Prominent Inter- 
est • Biographical Sketches ; Articles on Nihilism in Russia ; 
Scholastic and Philosophical Disquisitions ; and Historical 
Sketches. 

Furthermore, and in addition to all the foregoing, The 
New York Ledger for 1890 will contain Spicy Editorial 
Paragraphs, Pathetic Ballads and Humorous Poems ; Articles 
on Popular Games, Sports, and Recreations ; a great variety of 
Anecdotes, Answers to Correspondents, Scientific Items, Wit 
and Humor, and a liberal sprinkling of Miscellaneous Matter, 
which will be interesting to the old, the young, and the mid- 
dle aged. 

m~ AND ALL THIS WILL BE G-IVEN FOR 

OzoJLsr $2 a Tear. 

The contributors who will furnish THE NEW 
YORK LEDGER with this vast amount of super- 
latively excellent and interesting matter for the 
year 1890 are the most distinguished writers in 
the world, in their respective departments. A list 
of them will be found on the following page. 



CONTRIBUTORS 



TO 

The New York Ledger, 

FOR 1890. 

Among the distinguished and popular contribu- 
tors to the LEDGER, for 1890, are: 

JOHN GREENLEAF WH1TTIER, 

Mrs. FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT, 
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, 

ANNA KATHARINE GREEN, 
Rev. Dr. THOMAS M. CLARK, Bishop of Rhode Island, 
HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD, 
HENRY W. GRADY, 

The Marchioness CLARA LANZA, 

Rev. Dr. McCOSH, JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, 
Prof, W. C. KITCHIN, (Harvard University,) 

Miss PARLOA, Judge ALBION W. TOURGEE, 
JULIAN HAWTHORNE, 

Mrs. MADELEINE VINTON DAHLGREEN, 
THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH, 

MARY KYLE DALLAS, 
Rev. EMORY J. HAYNES, JAMES PARTON, 
MARION HARLAND, JOEL BENTON, 

Prof. J. H. COMSTOCK, (Cornell University,) 

Mrs. FLORENCE HOWE HALL, 
Rev. E. R. YOUNG, 

(The famous Missionary,) 
JOSEPHINE POLLARD, 

Major A. R. CALHOUN, 

^ AMY RANDOLPH, 

RUFUS HALE, 
EMMA ALICE BROWNE, 

Prof. WM. HENRY PECK, 

Dr. FELIX L. OSWALD, 

ANNA SHEILDS, 
CHARLES F. HOLDER, 

Rev. Dr. JOHN R. PAXTON, 

Prof. A. M. STEVENS, 

LEO HARTMAN, 

(Russian Nihilist.) 



THE GREAT BOOK OF THE AGE. 



Great Senators of the United States 

Forty Years Ago (1848 and 1849), with Personal Recollections and Delineations 
of Calhoun, Benton, Clay, Webster, General Houston, Jefferson Davis, etc. By 
Oliver Dyer. Robert Bonner's Sons, Publishers. Price $1. 

Oliver Dyer's "Great Senators of the United States Forty 
Years Ago " is now universally conceded to be the most interesting" and 
valuable book of this generation. The New York Tribune concludes a two- 
column review of it thus : 

This book will be read with the keenest pleasure by all who are old enough 
to have been brought up in the traditions of half a century ago, while it can be 
commended to young men as a treasure house of information concerning per- 
haps the most striking and able group of statesmen the Union has known. 

The New York Times says : 

Mr. Dyer's relation with the great Senators of forty years ago was one very 
fortunate for the acquiring of fresh impressions. It is impossible to read his 
reminiscences without being aware that the impressions he reports are genuine. 

The New York Sun says : 

Among the recent contributions to American history none is worthy of 
more serious attention than a volume entitled Great Senators.hy Oliver Dyer. 

It would be easy to fill columns with effective extracts from this volume, 
but we must confine ourselves to two or three examples of incisive and impar- 
tial delineation. Mr. Dyer's analysis of Webster's individuality is the most 
searching that we have ever seen— indeed, it is the only one which accounts at 
once for the triumphs and the shortcomings of the great parliamentary cham- 
pion of the Union. 

The New York Press says : 

In the book, " Great Senators of the United States Forty Years Ago," are 
told, as Dyer only could tell, stories of Calhoun, Benton, Clay, Webster, Hous- 
ton and Jeff Davis, with personal recollections and delineations. The personal 
descriptions given by Dyer of these great men are photographic in precision 
and lifelike as touched up by the anecdotal stroke of a master. 

Pages might be filled with laudatory notices of " Great Senators." Hun- 
dreds upon hundreds of the leading newspapers and periodicals of the United 
States concur in pronouncing Mr. Dyer's delineations of 

JEFFERSON DAVIS, GENERAL HOUSTON, 

CALHOUN, CLAY, 

BENTON, WEBSTER, 

and other distinguished statesmen to be the most accurate and life-lift pen- 
pictures ever put on paper. And the sketches of these great men are written 
in such a graphic, vivid and picturesque style, that " Great Senators " is 
more fascinating than any romance. In short, " Great Senators " is in all 
respects THE GREAT BOOK OF THE AGE. 

The price of ''Great Senators" is one dollar. Apply for it at the 
booksellers*, and if you can't get it there, send one dollar to Robert Bonner's 
Sons, corner of Spruce and William Streets, New York, and a copy of " Great 
Senators " will be sent you by mail, postage paid. Address 

ROBERT BONNER'S SONS. 



THE LE DGER LI BRARY. 

HER DOUBLE LIFE. 

Fy MKS, HARRIET LEWIS. 

No. i. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

UNKNOWN. 

By MRS. E. ». E. N. SOTJTHWORTH. 

No. 2. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

GUNMAKER OP MOSCOW. 

By SYLVANUS COBB, Jr. 

No. 3. — Paper Cover, 25 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

MAUD MORTON. 

By MAJOR ALFRED B. CALHOUN. 

No. 4. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

THE HIDDEN HAND. 

By MRS. E. IK E. N. SOUTHWOBTH. 

No. 5. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

SUNDERED HEARTS. 

By MRS. HARRIET LEWIS, 

No. 6. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 
THE STONE-CUTTER OP LISBON. 

By WILLIAM HENRY PECK. 

No. 7. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

LADY KILDARE. 

By MRS. HARRIET LEWIS. 

No. 8. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

CRIS ROCK 

By CAPTAIN MAYNE REID. 

No. 9. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 
NEAREST AND DEAREST. 

By MRS. E. B. E. N. SOUTH WORTH. 

No. 10. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00 

THE BAILIFF'S SCHEME. 

By MRS. HARRIET LEWIS. 

No. 11. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 

A LEAP IN THE DARK. 

By MRS. E. B. E. N. SOUTH WORTH. 

No. 12. — Paper Cover, 50 cents. Bound Volume, $1.00. 



News from the Hear t of Africa. 
FIVE YEARS 

WITH THE 

CONGO CANNIBALS. 

Br 
HERBERT WARD. 



Herbert Ward spent five yeats in the Congo Region of 
Central Africa, and was a member of H. M. Stanley's last 
Expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha. Mr. Ward's 
travels in Africa commenced in 1884, when he received an 
appointment in the Congo Free State, under the sovereignty 
of His Majesty King Leopold II. of Belgium. It was while 
in this service that Mr. Ward, who is a clever draughtsman, 
obtained his material, 

Mr. Ward's articles, which will run through eight or ten 
numbers of the New York Ledger, are of the most intensely 
interesting description. They cover five years of his adven- 
tures in Africa, and will be illustrated by sketches made on 
the spot by Mr. Ward himself, and By the reproduction of 
photographs taken by him in Africa. These pictures will 
throw much light upon the manners and customs of the 
hitherto unknown cannibal tribes of the Congo Region of 
Central Africa, and the personal appearance of these strange 
people will be illustrated for the first time. 

Mr. Ward's articles, which will begin in the New York 
Ledger, March 1st, 1890, will be one of the most interesting, 
attractive, and instructive series of 

Sketches of Travel, Exploration and Adventure 

ever put into print. In addition to these marvelous sketches, 
the New York Ledger contains a vast variety of unequaled 
reading matter in every department of literature. 

Subscription price to tire Ledger $2 a year. Single copies 
5 cents, Address 

ROBERT BONNER'S SONS, 

Corner of William and Spruce Streets, New York, 



